Wild West Harry Potter
by TheBlackHand724
Summary: Unspeakable Harry Steel (Harry Potter) is sent to Nevada to find a missing Unspeakable and he ends up in an alternate timeline 1885 full of magic and danger. Along for the ride is his best friends. So strap on your six guns, don your black hat, and your silver Marshal star. it's time to hand out justice in the old, weird, wild west. T for violence and language
1. Chapter 1

**AN!:** The first part of this chapter is a clone of the first chapter of Harry Steel Through Time. if you read that then you know most of the first chapter. However when they get to the mine things changes from then. The first part of this chapter was the preface to the RPG I set up. I put a bigger space and a line to skip to and a line to show the end of the changes.

This story is a mix of the notes I took from the game and the more "cinematic" story I turned those notes into. Any time a character gets into a fight, makes something, decides to do something, or has a conversation with another character comes from the game my group played. The dialog is not word for word but the gist of the conversation that took place on the night of the game is all there. The characters are all based on the same characters from the other story. In fact the group is playing as those characters and they have the other story to base their play style off of. This made the game kind of odd for me. Most of the time it was like sitting in a room with four characters I made and it was strange.

Also combat is streamlined in the story. Any time just Harry is in a fight it's most likely the whole group or Harry and Neville but I cut it down to just him so it's easier to follow. Also combat against a simple enemy like a zombie is cut down to he shot the zombie. Combat that took hours of turn based attacks is cut down to the good hits. We've had about 8 game sessions with real game play. That's good for about 4 chapters I have 2 chapters pretty much done. I will be posting about a chapter every week. If I have time to write more I will pump out two chapters a week. But I can only go as fast as the game goes. Now on with the show!

Harry looked down at his watch as the sunlight crested over the tops of buildings in the distance bringing some hope of warmth to the cold mid october air. He sat up in the lounge chair, cracked his neck, and rolled his shoulders. He pulled a Marlboro Red from a gold cigarette case and lit it with his gold zippo. As he took a deep drag he stood up from the lounge chair. He looked down at his black suit and waved his hand over himself to get the wrinkles out. He ran his hand over his face and felt the stubble of not shaving for two days. He looked over the balcony ten floors down and watched the busy street below. Traffic was light this time of the day but in a busy city like Moscow people never stopped moving. He bent down and grabbed the black Zojirushi bottle and took a sip of still warm coffee.

Harry saw movement in the hotel room across the street. A man in his late forties was walking around the big suite of rooms in bathrobe as two working girls got up and got dressed. Harry watched the two very expensive looking women in their mid twenties pull on lacey undergarments. He blinked and smiled, as he went back to looking at traffic again, this time he spotted three black Mercedes S550's rolling down the block and into the driveway of the building across the street. Harry checked his watch and nodded. 6am, the kid was telling the truth. Ten men dressed in black suits got out of the three black cars, four of the men were carrying two big black military style crates in pairs. Four other men had MP5Ks in hand as they walked into the lobby.

Harry put away his black thermos in his black leather messenger bag, hushed out the but of his cigarette, and picked up the Falkor Defence Petra rifle. He loaded up the magically expanded 100 round box mag, chambered the first magically enhanced .300 win mag round, and took a knee resting the Magpul angled fore grip on the balcony railing. He watched as the man in the apartment ushered the working girls back into the bedroom and told them something. They ran into the ensuite bathroom and the man opened the door to the room. The ten men came in starting with the four men with the guns, they checked the room and bedroom but not the bathroom. Sloppy, Harry thought as he shook his head. The four men with the black crates came in next and they were followed by a fat man and a tall man who never left the fat man's side. Harry watched the meeting through his magic scope. The men by the crates opened the lids to show off ten gold bricks in each crate. The man in the robe pulled out a laptop and showed the fat man files on a computer. The men shook hands.

That's when Harry acted. Starting with the guys holding the submachine guns Harry dropped all of the men in the room except for the fat man and the man in the robe with nine perfect headshots in four seconds. The rifle made no sound and there was no flash. Most of the men in the room died before they even knew what was going on and the rest didn't know where the shots were coming from. The spent shell casings vanished before they could hit the ground. Harry stood and slung the rifle and his bag over his shoulder, drew the Sig p226 from his shoulder holster, and popped into the room with his gun trained on the fat man. He swept the room with his eyes and made sure all the men were dead before he advanced on the fat man. He grabbed his tie and turned his head to look at him.

"Hello Dimitri, what did I tell you last year about buying stolen British intel?" Harry asked in the tone of voice a school teacher uses on her unruly first grader.

"I'm sorry, I did not know he was British until I got here." The man said in a heavy Russian accent.

"I let you slide last time, I can't let you off the hook for this one." Harry said letting go of the man's tie and pointing his gun at his face.

"NO Wait! I have information, warehouses full of black market goods, military grade weapons, aircraft, and explosives!" He said.

"I cleaned out your warehouses three hours ago." Harry said.

"I know a man that can get you Russian ICMB!" The fat Russian said.

"Who the hell can't get their hands on one of those? Besides I've cut a deal with your nephew Anton already, he's my guy in the Bratva now." Harry said shrugging.

"I can give you! I can…" He ran out of steam as Harry's words sunk in. "Not the face, da?" he asked.

"Goodbye Demitri." Harry said shooting him three times in the chest before turning on the man in the bath robe who was trying to crawl over to the coffee table where one of the guys MP5Ks fell. "Really Nigel?" Harry asked shooting the man in the leg.

"Aaahh! I had to try." The man said rolling over holding his leg.

"Well don't. You're just going to make this hurt more. Now I'm guessing the files are on the laptop? Is that all of them, you know the drill. Talk or I hurt you." Harry said.

"The files are on that laptop. I have a backup drive in the bedroom taped under the nightstand drawer." He said.

"Thank you." Harry said pointing his gun at his head.

"Wait don't you want to know who the mole inside MI-5 is?" The man asked.

"How do you think I found you?" Harry said putting a bullet between his eyes. He shrank the two black crates, summoned all the guns off the dead guys into his bag and tossed the laptop inside. He walked into the bedroom and pulled the nightstand drawer out and flipped it over spilling the contents of the drawer, a gold watch and a big wad of Euros, on the floor. He took the flash drive and the watch before walking to the bathroom door. He knocked and heard the two girls cowering inside. "You two didn't see anything, you didn't hear anything, you were hired to do a job, you did it, and you left this morning. You know nothing." Harry said in Russian.

"Da." He got back.

"Good girls. I left money on the floor in the bedroom for you." Harry said before he popped back to the balcony across the street.

He shrank and summoned the three cars and popped away to a side street three blocks away. He walked to his BMW M3 and got in. He sank down in the leather seat as he pulled out his smartphone and called the office. Hermione's disheveled face came on the screen and that put a smile on his face.

"Hey Mia, how's life treating you? Wait isn't it like four in the morning there?" He asked.

"It is, I was working on something and lost track of time so I took a nap on my couch in the office. As for how we're doing, good for the most part, were swamped here dealing with that shipment you sent us three hours ago. That's what woke me. It took up most of the storage space when we started unpacking it." She said with a smile.

"Well it was four hangars full of inventory. Most of it is shit Russian military surplus AK47s and Makarov's, but there were a few nice things in there as well. That pair of SU-34s were nice. I kept the five crates of C-4, and a few of the crates of RPGs, but the rest of it is mostly junk. The black market booze and cigarettes are what was good." Harry said rubbing his face.

"You look tired Harry. Now I'm second guessing this next assignment, but I swear this is the last one for a few weeks. You need some down time. I wouldn't send you if it wasn't important." She said.

"I'm fine, I can rest when I'm dead. Where am I going next? Somewhere warm I hope." Harry asked.

"You're going to the America, to a spot outside of Las Vegas. The local aurors called us to come investigate an old mineshaft. Something about missing local kids and glowing stones in the mine. The local Aurors looked at it but magic stops working in the the mine and the area around it for two hundred feet. It's an odd anomaly like a magical damping field. Research sent a new Unspeakable, Abigail Gibson, to look into it. She's from America and tribal magic is her field of study. She was sent out a little over three days ago, she sent a short report telling her boss she met with the local aurors and she was going to go into the mine to investigate, and then nothing. She stopped reporting. The local Aurors can't find her. I need you to go find her. See what the hell is going on Harry. She's a 23 year old, good kid, but she's green." Hermione said looking worried.

"Send me the portkey and the file on her and anything else you can think of. I'm sending you the stolen intel. I'm using Portkey sticker 55183. Send me the files using portkey sticker 55184." Harry said taking out a gold business card holder and pulling a yellow circle sticker with a black number string printed across it on a white business card. He stuck the flash drive to the laptop, peeled the sticker off the business card and stuck it to the laptop.

"I'll do that, is there anything else you need?" She asked.

"Yeah, I can do with a full resupply. Extra fuel this time, I had to put Russian gas in my car and it's been running funny ever since. I'm going to have to use my Ferrari until I can flush out the system. Also if I have to use my chopper to do a search of the dessert it's going to burn a lot of fuel." Harry said.

"I'll send you a full care package, with three extra large fuel tanks, how's that?" She said.

"Good. love you sis, say hi your your husband for me. Where is my brother by the way?" Harry asked.

"Neville's in Spain, the seers predicted an assassination attempt on the magical spanish royal family." She said.

"You sent me to Russia in October and you sent your husband to Spain? How dare you I say! I think I will take that vacation after this mission." Harry said faking indignation.

"Suck it up you big baby. I'll see you after this." She said before the smile fell of her face. "Harry, find her please. She should never have been sent on a mission like this by herself. She has no field experience. She's straight out of her master study, and this was her fifth mission and first one off the island." Hermione said.

"I'll find her. See you later, and I love you sis." Harry said hanging up.

A minute later the Laptop on the seat next to him vanished. Harry stuck the next portkey sticker to the seat and pulled up a map of Moscow on his phone. He found an alley a few blocks away that would act as a good portkey location. He put away his phone and started his car. He winced as the car sputtered to life.

"Sorry buddy, I'll flush out your system later." He said as he pulled out into traffic and drove to the alley.

As he pulled into the alley a black file box landed on the passenger seat. Harry looked inside and saw an Unspeakable personnel file, two shrunken trunks the size of a small shoe box, a shot glass with dice on it that read Las Vegas and a sticker on the bottom that read Lady Luck, and two 100,000 liter gas tanks shrunken down to the size of water bottles. Harry smirked and transferred everything into his messenger bag. He shrank his BMW and put it in it's spot in his large gold pill box, and took the shot glass. He said "Lady Luck" and he vanished. He was flying through the air for almost a minute, when he landed he felt very sick. He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of japanese ginger soda, chilled it, and took a drink. He was in an alley next to a dumpster just off the strip. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. It was dark but the lights on the strip lit up the city. He looked at his phone to figure out where he was. It was just after nine at night and the shift from Sunday morning Moscow to Saturday night in Vegas really messed with his internal clock.

He pulled out his black Ferrari 458 and got in. He pulled out of the alley and drove a few blocks away to the sheriff's office. He pulled into the lot and got out. He pulled a gold shield out of his bag and clipped it to his belt as he walked into the front door, and walked up to the fat desk sergeant dressed in a dark brown uniform shirt that was too tight and a red stain on his light brown tie.

"I'm agent Harry Steel from the DoM, I'm here to talk to Auror Green?" Harry said looking at the file to get the name right.

"Yeah, he's in the back through the red door. You need an escort?" The large lazy looking officer asked.

"No, I got it. Thanks." Harry said walking through the door to the back.

Harry nodded to officers as he went. He stopped off at the coffee machine and got a big cup of black dark roast and added ten packs of sugar. He found the red door and went through it. He saw a big room with a dozen desks and six men dressed in black uniforms with red ties. All eyes locked onto him when he came through the door.

"I'm looking for Auror Green?" Harry asked.

"That would be me. What can I do for you?" An older man in his sixties asked standing up from his desk. He had a black cowboy hat, a thick grey mustache, and thick coke bottle glasses.

"I'm agent Harry Steel from the DoM. We sent an Unspeakable your way about three days ago by the name of Abigail Gibson. Now she's missing and I'm here to find her." Harry said.

"Yeah, she came by about midday on Tuesday. I took her out to the mine and stayed with her as she did some scans of the area and what not. It was getting dark and I told her we should start heading back but she wanted to keep working. She said she had a tent and flood lights. She showed me the tent and when I was sure she would be fine I left. The next day I went back and found her working in the mine. I stayed out there for a bit but really I was just standing around doing nothing so I left. Yesterday I went back and I saw the tent still up, but she was nowhere to be seen. I called in the rest of the aurors and the deputies to help me search the mine from top to bottom but we couldn't find her and I mean not a trace. No remains or anything out of place she was just gone. That's when I called you folks.

"I see, did you pack up the tent?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it's a normal camping tent. You want to see it?" The old auror asked.

"Yes please, did you find a black leather bag like this one by any chance?" Harry asked holding up his messenger bag.

"No, she had it on her when she was working but it was missing from the campsite." The old timer said as pulled the small rolled up piece of canvas out of an evidence box and set it on the ground in the open area of the office. He pulled a wand from the holster on his belt and waved it at the tent. The tent popped up and expanded to a six foot tall canvas walled tent.

Harry walked inside and saw the standard two bedroom tent. Every researcher had one, it was part of their normal kit. This one was very sparsely decorated. There were a few books on the coffee table and a wool blanket with native American pattern over the back of the brown leather couch. There was a dream catcher over the bedroom door. Orange and blue earthwear dishes in the cupboard but not much else. Either she just started decorating or she didn't spend too much time in here. In the second bedroom he found a study with more native American art. The book shelves on the right side of the room were full to the brim with books on tribal spells and medicine man potions, but also enchantments, curses breaking, and rituals. The books on the shelves on the left side were on history, science, math, literature. He referred back to the file and saw she had muggle degrees in History and archaeology and masteries in tribal spells, curse breaking, enchantments, and rituals. He spotted four black unspeakables trunks full of more books. On the desk he found a diary but it was blank meaning it was charmed with a password. The old Auror walked into the study behind him.

"Like I said there's not much here." He said.

"No there is not. So far everything checks out. I'm going to need to see the camp site and the mine." Harry said.

"You want to go out there now?" The Auror asked.

"If it's not too much trouble. This young girl has been gone for over thirty hours, she's most likely dead, but if she's not then she's out there alone, and hurt. This is her first real assignment, and her file shows no issued department firearms. The faster we find her the better." Harry said walking out of the tent and closing it when the Auror walked out behind him. Harry took the tent and put it in his bag.

"I understand, I can take you out there now. It's about a thirty minute drive out into the desert. The mine is in the middle of nowhere. It only fell in our lap because we're closer." He said walking to his desk to get his coat and keys.

"Why not use a portkey?" Harry asked following the old Auror out of the station.

"The magic gets confused by the damn mine. We tried using portkeys and we tried apparition. They don't work right when you get within a few miles of the mine. The portkey landed an Auror hard enough to break both his legs and apparition let's you off a few hundred feet above the ground." The old man said walking over to a black SUV.

"Hold on a second, let me get my car." Harry said running over to his Ferrari and shrinking it. He put it back in the gold case and ran back to the SUV.

"Unspeakable salary that good ha?" The old man said rolling out of the parking lot.

"No but then again I'm not a normal Unspeakable. The department is divided into two branches. The girl you met is a Researcher. A bookworm that studies the unknown. I'm an Operative. I handle threats. I took that car off a drug kingpin in Mexico. Anything we seize we can keep, the things we don't want get sent back to the department and the department sells it off. They use the cash made from the sale to help fund magical schools and hospitals around the world." Harry said looking over Abbigail's file as they headed north out of the city and into the desert.

The file read like a lot of Researcher files. All O's in everything from the Salem institute. Two muggle degrees, and five magical masters in five years. Apprenticed under good masters. Got her black letter after Salem but chose to keep studying. Like most Unspeakables she was an orphan with no surviving family to speak of. That was good, he didn't feel like giving a death notice to next of kin. He would find her body, figure out what killed her, and take the body back to the office to be taken care of in her specified way in the contract and he would move on to the next assignment. It's why they gave him missions like this. Was it sad that this 23 year old girl was dead? Sure it was. But he didn't know her and everyone had to go sometime. Even the Flamels died after five hundred years.

"So you're like a global cop?" The old auror asked.

"More like a magical CIA agent. We deal with people trying to upset the balance of the world and start magical world wars." Harry said looking at his watch. It was just after ten and as they got further away from the city it was getting darker and darker until Auror Green turned on the light bar on the top of his truck. At the speeds they were traveling the mine was about forty miles outside of the city. It really was in the middle of nowhere.

"Sounds like an exciting job." Green said trying to keep up the small talk.

"It has it's days. If there was a good way to describe the job it would be, travel the world, meet interesting people, then kill them. The upside is I'm always all over the world so I get a chance to buy things that are hard to get or super expensive at a huge discount. Take for instance this morning, I raided a warehouse full of black market goods and military surplus. I got two cases of Marlboro reds, four boxes of black Cuban cigars, a case of Johnny Walker Blue label, a case of Grey Goose, and a big tin of caviar. The crates of C4 and RPGs were nice as well." Harry said with a smirk.

"Nice haul. Were closing in on the mine and her camp site. See the lights." He said pointing to a spot a few miles off the road to the left.

"I see it. Is that the mine at the base of the rocky hill?" Harry asked as they turned off the road into the hard packed sand headed for the camp site.

"Yeah, Abby found the outside limit of the magical absorbing field. She marked it with red paint." He said stopping next to the crime scene tape stretched out between the poles of a half dozen magical flood lights stuck in the ground. Harry got out of the SUV and was hit with a cold breeze. He pulled a black trench coat out of his bag and pulled it on over his thin suit jacket.

"There is definitely bad JuJu in the air. This suit's warming charm works up to almost freezing. I slept outside last night in Moscow. You said this is the line she marked in the sand?" Harry said pointing out the red line made with surveyors paint.

"Yeah, anything magical inside that line gets out of whack." Green said.

"Well, I think the line has moved out. We're inside it now." Harry said holding out his hand. He started walking backwards and when he got two hundred feet away his hand lit up. "The line is back here now." Harry said.

"The damping field is growing. What does that mean?" Green asked looking worried.

"Look, I'm not sure. I'm not a researcher, I was sent here to find an Unspeakables body, and kill whatever got her. But what I can tell you, is whatever this is, it's not good. On the upside my bag worked so it doesn't stop all magic. Let's see if this works." Harry said pulling his Sig 226 out and walking forward into the field. He pulled the trigger and the hammer clinked down but the gun didn't fire. "That's what I thought." Harry said walking backwards out of the field.

"Thought what?" The auror asked pulling his truck back to get out of the bubble.

"My enchanted guns don't work and I don't want to break them so I'm not going to use them inside the damping field." Harry said as he put his gun in his bag and pulled out one of the Russian's Glock 19s and tucked it into his shoulder rig. He pulled out the six other glocks, took the full magazines out, and tossed the guns back in his bag. He did the same with the seven MP5Ks. He slung the submachine gun over his shoulder and put the longer mags in his inside coat pocket.

"What do you want to do now?" Green asked.

"I'm going to make a call, and get back up here to check out that mine." Harry said pulling out his phone and the calling the office. Hermione's face popped up on screen looking tired.

"Yes Harry?" She asked.

"Mia, this magical disruption field is growing and it gives me the creeps. Something's not right with this one. I want you and Neville to come here now." Harry said.

"Okay, um Neville's on assignment remember?" She said.

"I don't care send someone else to take his place. This feels wrong. My enchanted guns don't work but my bag does. The warming charm on my over coat works but the one on my suit doesn't. The whole area feels off. Dark and cold and wrong. When you get here you'll understand what I'm talking about. I'm going to take a ride away from the bubble and set up a portkey. I'll have an Auror waiting to bring you to me, I'm going to walk around a bit and get a feel for the place. But I can tell you this now, something's not right." Harry said.

"Relax Harry, I'll get everything ready on my end. I'm guessing your going to use the next two portkey stickers in that same line?" She asked.

"Yes. Bring your full kit and muggle stuff too. Like I said some stuff works and some stuff doesn't. Bring a few of the black market guns, and some regular flashlights." Harry said.

"Okay, we'll be there in about a half hour. Wait until we get there to go in." She said before she hung up.

"I heard most of that. You think the portkey will work out here?" Green asked walking up to Harry.

"These will. They're paired portkeys." Harry said pulling out his card holder and taking the next two cards out and handing them to the Auror. "I need you to do me a favor. Take these two cards a few miles away and stick the yellow stickers to the ground. You got an extra flashlight?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. Here take mine." Green said handing him the big Maglite off his belt as he got in his SUV.

WWHSWWHSWWHSWWHSWWHSWWHSWWHS

When he was gone Harry turned on the light and walked around the bubble to the rocky hill that jutted out of the ground thirty feet forming the mouth of the mineshaft. The closer he got to the mineshaft the worse the cold feeling got. He walked back to the spot he started and saw the SUV heading back. When it stopped Hermione and Neville hopped out they were both wearing black suits and over coats. They also had their thicker combat dragonhide vest on over their shirts. They had their black messenger bags and Ak47's over their shoulders.

"That was quick." Harry said hugging them. It had been more than three months since the last time he saw them and he missed them both. He pulled out his combat vest and put it on over his shirt before pulling his suit jacket and overcoat back on.

"Neville walked into the office right after you hung up. So this is the mine?" Hermione said passing Harry a super bright small headlamp and a small tactical flashlight. Harry handed the maglite back to the Auror and put the headlamp on.

"Yes, take a few steps towards it and see what I'm talking about." Harry said. Hermione walked up to the bubble and stopped short.

"Oh, this feels bad Harry. We need to see what the hell is causing this." She said.

"Let me lead. We're all set Auror Green, if you don't hear from us by morning call the office and have them send out a full team." Harry said shaking the old Auror's hand.

"I'm going to stay here in my truck until you guys come out. Good luck you three." He said.

"Well lead the way Harry." Neville said nodding to his brother.

Harry pulled up the MP5K, flipped out the shoulder stock, and turned on his head lamp. The other two did the same thing. Harry walked forwards through the bubble and headed for the mine. The closer he got the colder he felt but he knew the temperature hadn't change. He walked into the mine and almost immediately felt the floor slope down and curve around in a spiral as it went down.

"Watch your step the mine is steep." Harry said.

"We're right behind you." Hermione said. As they started to descend into the mine they noticed the glowing red stone running through the walls in veins throwing off enough light to give the mine a red glow.

"This is not normal." Neville said.

"No it's not." Harry agreed.

They walked a for a few more minutes and at this point they knew they were deep under ground. They came to their first major cut in. It was a large cavern about fifty foot across with a fifteen foot roof supported by large tree trunk beams. Harry looked around the room and spotted movement in the corner of the ceiling. He tilted his head around the beam and saw a huge red and black spider. It's body was the size of a garbage can lid and it had big pincers around it's mouth full of spiked teeth. A soon as he saw it he hit it with a short burst from his gun. The rounds impacted and blasted the spider off the wall. It landed on the ground and it's legs curled up. Hermione and Neville stuck their heads into the room.

"Big fucking spider." Neville said getting the hebegebees at the sight of it.

"That's not an acromantula." Hermione said.

"Wait, do you hear that?" Harry said waving at the two to be quite. He heard it again. It was above him. He pointed up and shouldered his gun. They all turned their heads up and saw a dozen big spiders on the ceiling. They all fired at the spiders as they dropped from the ceiling. They got half of them but the ones that made it to the ground ran at them hissing and snapping. Harry and Neville sprayed the six spiders on the ground and they kept firing until their guns ran dry.

"I think you boys got them." Hermione said.

"I hate spiders." Harry said pulling the spent mag from his gun and putting in a fresh one.

Neville followed his lead. As they crossed the room and entered the next tunnel heading down. A few minutes of walking with the boys scanning the ceiling of the tunnel for more spiders. Harry stopped short.

"You hear that? It sounds like rushing water." Harry said.

"And squeaking." Hermione added.

"It's coming from up ahead and it's getting louder." Neville added.

Harry turned the corner and saw a swarm of rats around something. Harry stepped back, pulled a flash bang out of his bag and held it up to show the other two. They closed their eyes and held their ears. Harry pulled the pin and tossed the flashbang around the corner. He held his ears and closed his eyes but he still saw the flash and his ears had that bell ringing sound. He turned the corner and saw the rats run into holes in the floor exposing the dead body of an older man dressed in jeans and a blue t-shirt. There was a discarded mining helmet and a pickaxe near by. The wall showed signs of damage and there were small bits of glowing red stone on the floor. The man's flesh was mostly chewed off but the bullet wound to the head was clear as day. The rats didn't kill this man they just feast on the leftovers.

They continued down the tunnel and came to their first junction point. They came to a flat spot that went into two different directions and a tunnel heading down across from them. Harry turned to ask them which way they wanted to go when he stopped in his tracks. Turning his head flashed his light down the left tunnel and he saw movement. He looked at Neville and held up a finger. He pointed down the left side and turned back that way. Neville came to stand next to him and they walked down the hall until they came to a bigger hollowed out room with a door on the other side. Harry looked left and Neville looked right, both of them saw something different.

Harry saw a confederate soldier with half his flesh missing charging at him with a calverley saber out. Harry brought his MP5K up and hit the zombie with a short burst of five9 rounds that tore the soldier's chest open. Neville saw a fresher zombie cowboy walking at him with a Colt peacemaker in his limp hand. The zombie fired once missing way off to the left as Neville shoulder his rifle and hit him with a short burst of three rounds to the chest. They both looked at eachother for a second before having to turn back to their zombies who were moving again. Harry switched to semi auto and put a round through his zombie's head which stopped it dead. Neville did the same.

"So head shots from now on." Harry said as Hermione came through the door with her rifle up.

"WHat's going on?" She asked seeing the two dead bodies.

"Zombies." Harry said approaching his zombie. He nudged him over with his foot and picked up the saber off the ground. "This guy came from the civil war I think. He's in good nick for someone that old." Harry said pulling the metal scabbard and belt off the corps and put it on around his over coat.

"Harry did you just rob a dead guy?" Hermione asked.

"He's not going to need it and if we run out of ammo a good sword will come in handy for chopping off zombie heads." Harry said taking the gun belt and the colt off the other zombie. "Here Nev. it's a nice belt and gun. And the bullet loops are almost full." Harry said handing his brother the gun belt.

"We're not going to run out of ammo, we're carrying a dozen shrunken ammo cans full of 7.62x39 in AK mags. What the hell is going on with this mine." Hermione asked as a third zombie came stumbling out of the door on the other side of the room. This one was another cowboy with two guns. She hit it with a short burst dropping it to the ground. Neville took the colt out of the holster and put a bullet in it's head as it started to get back up.

"You have to hit them with headshots to put them down." Neville said.

"Well we're at an impasse, do we continue down zombie lane or try the other side and see where it takes us?" Harry asked taking the gun belt off the new crops and handing it to Hermione with the two colts. She shook her head but Harry gave her a 'don't be a pain look and she buckled the gun belt around her waist and shrank it to fit.

"Let see what's back the other way but one of us has to keep an eye out behind us for the walking dead." Neville said turning around and heading back down the tunnel they came from.

Harry followed but he kept looking back to make sure nothing was following them. They headed down the other tunnel and found piles of red stone that glowed bright enough to see without the headlamps give and the tunnel a odd red hue. They came to another big room but this one was a dead end. They did found the half eaten bodies of five teenagers being chewed on by three dead saloon girls. The boys took out the dead women with three head shots. Hermione was horrified for a second before her brain kicked in she looked at the open chest cavities of the teens and saw that while their flesh was ripped off by teeth their hearts were cut out cleanly.

"These kids were killed and their hearts were cut out. This looks like it might have been a part of some dark ritual. Let's head back that way." She said.

"Great, through the zombies." Harry muttered leading the way.

In the tunnel he saw two more shambling confederates. He dropped them both with headshots and took the swords and belts and passed them to his friends. Hermione rolled her eyes when he handed her the sword but she put the belt on. They advanced into the room where they killed their first three zombies and found six more. Three cowboys, a barmaid and two more confederates. Harry again dropped them all with head shots he took the double gun belt of one of the cowboys and took the guns off the two others and added them to his bag.

"Will you stop looting the zombies!" Hermione shuted in a hushed whisper.

"Have you never played a video game or seen an action movie? You always loot your kills." Harry said leading them through the back door way and down another tunnel.

"I get it. Pass me that's nickle plated Smith and Wesson Schofield." Neville said making Harry laugh as he handed over the shiny silver gun in the gun belt and Neville changed it out for the colt before tossing the colt and gun belt in his bag.

As they walked down this tunnel they heard chanting. There was another chamber. This one was lit by torches on the wall. In the center of the room was an alter. A man dressed like an indian with a feathered headdress and warpaint was chanting and dancing. Laying on the altar was a naked blonde woman. She looked knocked out or dead. She was tied to the altar and her eyes were closed. Around her were candles and the five missing hearts. The back wall of the room had a jagged tear in it and that's where the zombies were coming from. Harry fired three times into the side wall stopping the indian from chanting. The man turned to him as Neville and Hermione dropped the three zombies that came through the rip.

"Hands up, step away from the blonde and kindly explain what you're doing." Harry said as six zombies came through the rip and Harry had to turn to help kill them.

"I am finishing a ritual my ancestors started a long time ago. The white man took our land, killed our children and rapped our women. This is how you'll pay for it!" He said pulling a knife from his belt and cutting open his chest.

"Hermione can I just shoot this guy?" Harry asked.

"I don't know Harry!" She said as a second portal opened opened next to the zombie portal.

"Now it all ends!" the indian yelled turning to stab the blonde, that's when Harry shot him in the back of the knees dropping the man to the floor. "NO! My people will be free!" He yelled plunging the knife through his own chest. Harry ran up to the table and cut the blonde loose with his new sword. She was unconscious, but alive. The two portals colessed in the center of the wall and they pulsed with power. Then they exploded bathing them in red light. Harry thought they were all going to die but when the light faded they were standing in the room alive.

"Um guys, Are we dead?" Harry asked holding the naked blonde to his chest.

"I don't think so. Hey look, the walls stopped glowing." Neville said.

"And the cold feeling has faded. Also our indian friend is gone. So are the hearts but not zombies." Hermione said looking around the room.

"That means there are guns on the floor. Grab those Nev." Harry said.

"Good call." Neville said finding a Lemat revolver.

"You two are the worst." Hermione said casting a few spells on the walls.

"Well let's get out of here and call in a team to investigate this. Hermione can you help me with this girl, I'm guessing this is Abby?" Harry asked looking down at beautiful young woman in his arms.

"Yes that's her, her things are over here. Why don't you set her back down and you two turn around while I get her up and dressed." Hermione said as she grabbed Abby's bag and her cut up clothes as Harry set her on the altar again.

Hermione hit the girl with an enervate and when she came to her head shot up and she let out a scream.

"Relax! You're safe." Hermione said covering her with her undamaged coat.

"What happened?" She asked looking confused and disoriented.

"We were hoping you could tell us. Let's fix your clothes and get you dressed." Hermione said helping her off the stone table.

"Wait! The guy, the Washoe indian. He's opening a portal to another dimension!" she said looking around the room.

"He's dead. We stopped him." Hermione said helping her put on her undergarments, black skirt, and white blouse.

"Good, if he succeeded in even the slightest way he would have altered the timeline forever." Abby said putting on her black low heeled pumps.

"Wait, define a little bit because he was pretty far into the chanting and cutting and stabbing part." Harry said turning around to look at her. She was tall and thin but well proportioned and her cold blue eyes had a look of intelligence about them. When she stood up she had a grace to her movements like a dancer. She reminded him of someone famous, and when she turned to pick up her bag it clicked for him. She kind of looked like Taylor Swift.

"That's not good. Was there a rip in the fabric of reality?" She asked.

"Two of them, one was spewing zombies, and the other one was just taking shape the two rips combined and then exploded." Hermione explained.

"Oh god." Abby said looking like she was going to faint.

"Oh god what?" Harry asked.

"He completed the ritual!" She said.

"No he was going to stab you and I shot him, he did stab himself however." Harry said.

"I don't know what happened but something must have changed. The ritual was complete. Not as intended but still complete. What you just described is a planeswalker ritual. We have to get out of here and see what's different." Abby said slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Alright, let me and Nev. lead us out." Harry said nodding to his brother as he changed mags and started out the tunnel.

As soon as they walked out into the tunnel they saw three more zombies. Harry shook his head as he popped theirs. They only slowed down enough to collect the guns and belts. One of them had a winchester rifle and Harry had a big grin on his face when he tucked that into his bag.

It took them an hour to get back out of the mine. They found dozens of zombies. Everything from more confederates, cowboys, and saloon girls to union soldiers, and even an undead preacher. When they did make it out they didn't see the black SUV, or the lights with the police tape, or Auror Green. Harry looked around before shrugging.

"I wonder where he went?" Harry said pulling out his pill box. He pulled out his lifted black Jeep rubicon. "Come on let's go my jeep's built like a brinks truck." Harry said. As they loaded up into his big truck. Harry started the truck, and flipped on the big overhead light bar and the high beams. He turned to get back to the road and headed that way. After a minute he didn't see the road. He stopped and scratched his chin.

"Something wrong Harry?" Neville asked from the passenger seat.

"Where's the road?" Harry asked.

"Isn't it up a bit?" Neville asked looking out in front of the jeep.

"I have to check something real quick. Stay in the car." Harry said getting out. He pulled his new firebolt broom from his bag and took off into the air.

He climbed up to a few hundred feet and looked to the south. Nothing. No lights. Just dessert, and darkness. He went higher. Still nothing. Then he caught a glimmer of light in the distance up north more than three hundred miles away. The light coming from the town was so small it made him feel sick to his stomach. He cast a flare charm and didn't see a road in sight. He dropped down and landed next to his car and cast a Halo charm around his jeep. A ring of light sprang out for fifty feet around his jeep and threw off light for miles. He put away his broom and got back in the jeep.

"What's going on Harry?" Neville asked.

"Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is I didn't see any more zombies or spiders. and we're facing the wrong direction and that's why we didn't see anything. The bad news is there is no Las Vegas." Harry said rubbing his head.

"What do you mean there is no Las Vegas?" Neville asked.

"You know, big city full of lights and sin? Yeah, it's not there. From what I saw the only thing close by is a mining town back that way a few hundred miles. You know, because it's not 2016 anymore." Harry said looking at the girls in the back seat.

"Well, we wanted to know what changed." Abby said looking sad.

"But if it's not 2016 then what the hell is it?" Neville asked.

"My guess, some time after the civil war." Harry said holding up his saber.

"We need to know for sure." Hermione said.

"I agree. Let's fly to the big town I saw and stop a few miles away. I'll go fly in under my cloak and get a feel for the place. The problem is it's about 300 miles from here and I don't know if you guys feel like flying that far on a broom when it's just above freezing out there. So what I can do is make a set of paired portkeys, do the trip myself, and you can just pop over. Our phones still work right?" Harry asked.

"They should, they work on magic not satellite tech." Hermione said pulling out her phone and calling Harry. His phone vibrated and he answered to see if the connection was good. Which it was.

When he got the Okay. He got out of the car, picked up two rocks they flashed blue and he handed one to Neville.

"Stay in the truck. In fact Nev get behind the wheel, if something comes at you kill it if you can and drive away if you can't. This Jeep can drive through anything and the halo is attached to the roof of the truck so you'll see for miles." Harry said.

"I got it, be careful of anything flying out there, this could be an undead shit show for all we know." Neville said.

Harry pulled out his broom and took off again. This time he pulled a black scarf out of his bag and wrapped it around his head before he really started moving. It took Harry almost an hour and a half flying at top speed but he finally made it to the town with the lights. He was right, it looked like a mining town. But something was not right. There was a tall wood wall around the town and there were guards posted on watchtowers by the big front gate holding rifles. He pulled on his invisibility cloak and did a quick scan of the town of about a thousand people. The light was coming from street lights made of lanterns and there were horses, buggies, and wagons on the dirt roads that made up the town. It was close to two in the morning and the only place that still had life was the saloon and even they were closing up shop. Harry glided down to a man walking down the street away from everyone. He grabbed the man and pulled him behind a building. He pulled the cloak off and drew the colt from the holster still around his waist and pressed it to his head.

"What year is it?" He asked.

"18… um. 1885. Please mister, don't shoot me." The man said.

"I'm not going to shoot you, I'm just used to talking to people at gunpoint. What is today's date and the name of this town?" Harry asked putting the gun back in it's holster.

"It's Saturday night, mid October I think, this here town is Eureka." The man said looking confused.

"One last question, has there been anything strange going on in or around town?" Harry asked.

"Not in a few days, the last werewolf attack happened with the full moon but since then it's been quiet." The man said.

"Werewolf attack?" Harry asked.

"You're not from around here are you?" the drunk asked getting more sober by the second.

"No, I used a teleportation spell and it landed me in the middle of nowhere." Harry said playing a hunch.

"That explains it. You're one of them Magic folk. Well you ended up in America if that helps. You sound like you come from europe." The man said.

"I did, I was not supposed to end up here. I know nothing about here." Harry said.

"Well you do know about the rifts right?" the man asked.

"No, I can't say that I have." Harry said.

"Good Heavens above! How the hell could you have missed that?" The man asked.

"I've been in hiding." Harry said.

"Right, about thirty years ago a bunch of red skins played with magic and they called forth a bunch of beasts. All manner of evil came out and was unleashed on the world. Mythical things. Dragons, spiders the size of a house, trolls, ogors, goblins, all kinds of things. And the curses, werewolves, vampires, and the undead. The magic folks got together and closed the rip about ttwnety years ago but it was too late, you can't undo that kind of flood. It's dangerous outside of cities and towns. You best get a room for the night, even in the town there's a chance to run into a raiding party of vampires but at least they can be bargained with the roving bands of undead just want to eat you." He said.

"Is the whole country fucked like this?" Harry asked.

"Mostly, The worst of it all tend to stay out west but they're all over the world. How have you never heard of all this?" He asked looking confused.

"Thank you for your time. I need you to look at my finger." Harry said holding up his index finger. A white light flashed from it and Harry pulled on his cloak as the man blinked and continued to walk back to his house.

Harry saw that he was standing behind a clothing shop and unlocked the back door with a wave of his hand. He ghosted into the shop and took a white shirt, brown pants, a brown three quarters length suit jacket, a red ascot, and a pair of brown riding boots. He took one of the gold bars he got from the the Russians and cut off a small nugget. He left the gold on the counter and vanished out the back door. He flew out of town about a mile to a big pile of boulders and looked around to make sure the coast was clear before he called Hermione.

The group portkeyed to him and Harry pulled out a black cube from his bag. The cube was a small two inch black cube made of onyx that expanded to a six foot cube with a door. The cube was not new to the Operatives. They each had one but Harry put a lot of time and magic into his cube. The six by six foot outside space was expanded into a 3600 square foot four bedroom five bathroom home decorated in the georgian style. All the lamps and electronics ran on magic power outlets and the whole cube was shielded from everything. Once he got the cube Harry never came home. He just bounced from one mission to the next and every night he expanded his cube somewhere off the beaten path, walked inside, and hit the rune by the door to shrink it and cloak it. It was totally secure, and he could rest peacefully knowing that no one could get him inside his cube. When it was shrunken down and cloaked it could withstand everything the DoM could throw at it.

He set it on the ground and put his thumb on the top. Once they were all in he hit the rune by the door to shrink and cloak the cube. They all sat in the dining room looking at Harry.

"It's Saturday night mid october 1885. We're in Eureka Nevada. And so far according to the drunk I accosted nothing strange has happened today, but this place were in is fucked." Harry said telling them everything the drunk told him.

"If that's true we're stuck here." Hermione said rubbing her forehead.

"What do you mean stuck here? Can't we do a ritual or something and get back?" Neville asked.

"No. If we did go back in time it means we erased the future or we jumped to a parallel dimension. Either way we're stuck. We could try dimension hopping again but you never know where we might end up and the ritual might kill us all. For all we know we might end up in a far worse place or dead. From what he said it sounds like in this universe magic is out in the world and so are dark creatures." Hermione said.

"Well shit." Harry said scratching his chin.

"That sums it up nicely." Neville said.

"On the up side we don't have to go to work, the Department of Mysteries won't be formed for another 45 years. If it get's invented at all." Abby said laughing nervously.

"Well I was owed some vacation days anyways and on the up side we are rich. I have two crates of big gold bars on me plus whatever else we have with us." Harry said.

"Gold is not worth as much as it was back in our time. The price of gold was fixed at $23 or something like that at this time in our history. A gold brick is 400 ounces so you're looking at $9,200 per brick. The good news is the average worker makes about $2 a day and you can buy the nickel plated colt peacemaker you have in that gun belt for about $25." Abby said.

"Then we're still rich. There were ten bars in each box. That's like $184,000. We can buy this state for that price. And that's if we stay here. Who want's to go see London? We can still catch Jack the Ripper I think." Harry said with a smirk.

"How are you excited? We're stuck in 1885 you dumb ass! And maybe in a different dimension." Hermione said.

"Hermione think about it. We can change history. Stop wars and things like that, if wars are even going to happen like they did in our time. For all we know it's all sword and sorcery out there. In that case we'll go dungeon crawling and build a castle keep we can call home." Harry said.

"If it is 1885 then the paired portkey won't be invented for another seventy plus years meaning things have to be shipped everywhere by boat and tran. Think about the damage we could do if we open an import export shipping business. One trip to London by plane and we can ship boat loads of cargo to the states in seconds." Neville said.

"Now you're thinking Nev. I like that. What do you say to Potter and Longbottom shiping?" Harry asked waving his hand like he was picturing the sign on a building.

"I think you both need to go by you're Unspeakable covers. There's already Potters and Longbottoms in the world. So Blackwell and Steel Shipping." Hermione said mocking his hand gesture as she rolled her eyes.

"Hey Harry, we got enough fuel to make a flight across the atlantic?" Neville asked.

"We do, Hermione sent me two big gas tanks and a full resupply right before I came to America. In fact I still have to flush out the cheap Russian gas from my M3. Speaking of cars maybe we should take stock in what we have." Harry said.

"Good idea, start with that black hole you call a mission bag." Hermione said.

"I have no idea what's in here. I'm almost afraid to dump it out. It's been years since I've done a full dump." Harry said standing up and taking off his bag. He held it open over the table and things started tumbling out. Soon the big 12x4 foot dining room table was piled 3 foot high with shrunken stuff.

"Jesus Harry, do you ever clean out your bag." Hermione asked picking up a half eaten candy bar and tossing it at Harry who caught it and expanded it.

"No, I'm too busy. For the last ten years I've had maybe a hundred days off. The last time I cleaned out that bag was when you upgraded it five years ago." Harry said.

"Well lets see what we're working with. We need a room to store all this stuff. Why don't you find a place in this big ass house where we can store things while we go over this stuff and inventory it." Hermione said pulling a small shrunken trunk out of her bag. She expanded it and it was full of at least 500 shrunken trunks.

"Is that a trunk full of shrunken trunks?" Harry asked.

"Yes, all Researchers have one, we're taught to keep things organized. Something you Operatives never got the memo on. And don't you smirk Neville were dumping out your bag next." Hermione said opening the empty trunks next to the table.

"Nerd." Harry muttered walking away as he took a bite out of the half eaten candy bar "Hey it's still good!" He said.

Harry cleaned out the smallest bedroom right off the dining room by shrinking the furniture and setting it on the bookcase in the corner. When he came back to the dining room the table was barely touched and Hermione was keeping track of things on a clipboard as Neville and Abby were stacking things in magically expanded trunks.

"How's it going?" Harry asked.

"Good, we might be able to live off the junk in your bag for the next ten years." Hermione said.

"Well you guys look like you're all set. I'm going to go cook dinner." Harry said walking out of the room only to come back through the door a second later. "Abby you don't have any food issues right?" He asked.

"None, I'll eat pretty much anything. I had a meal bar in the car a bit ago but I'm still super hungry." She said.

"Good." Harry said walking out.

"I still can't believe that's Harry Steel. And I can't believe Harry Steel is Harry Potter. You know girls in the Research department read his mission summaries to each other as fanfiction right? He's so cool and awesome in the files." She said with a blushing smile.

"Well keep that kind of stuff to yourself. Harry hates people fawning over him. And I told those girls to stop doing that." Hermione said.

"We only do it when you're not in the room. Silvia said you knew Harry Steel, and you stopped them from fantasizing about him so you could keep him all to yourself. Of course Silvia is a fat mean bitch so what does she know. Now on to the more important question, is he single?" Abby asked adjusting the small reading glasses on the end of her nose as she looked at a small diamond ring.

"Not that I know of, he keeps that stuff to himself. Then again, seeing as we're in bazro 1885, if there was a Mrs. Steel she's out of the picture now. Neville, is Harry seeing someone?" Hermione asked.

"Nope, not since that blonde in Paris. What's her name? The the french spy." Neville said.

"Sophie Martin. Magical branch of the DGSE." Hermione said nodding.

"So he likes blondes?" Abby asked with a smile.

"Harry likes women that are breathing. You peak his interest and he's on you." Neville said.

"How can I do that?" She asked.

"You already have. You're the only woman in this time period that bathes everyday and shaves her legs. Trust me you have a leg up on every other woman around. Now can we please get back to work? Hearing you two 'girl talk' is slowing us down and I want to get done. I need a hot meal and a bed. I've been going for two days straight." Neville said yawning.

"Sorry sweety." Hermione said kissing him as she went back to work cataloging things off the table.

An hour later Harry came into the dining room with two plates loaded with chicken tacos, rice and beans in his hands. The table was mostly cleared off except for a line of shrunken vehicles. There were 58 cars, 6 bikes, 5 boats, and even a small private jet. Harry set the plates down and walked out to get the next two. He set them down and went back for four sets of silverware, napkins, four bottles of beer and a bottle of hot sauce. He sat at the head of the table where they left a space open for him. When he sat down he saw Abby was making her way through her first taco. He shared a smirk with Hermione and Neville.

"Abby, since you started first I'll let you say grace." Harry said stopping her mid bite.

"Um, sorry, um I didn't mean to. Oh God." She said blushing bright red that's when Neville lost it which sent Harry and Hermione over the edge. "WHat?" Abby asked looking indignant.

"You have to learn to relax Abs. We're life long friends and I know that can feel a bit daunting for you but we're the only four people in this boat together and that means you have to get used to us. We all met first year of Hogwarts and we've been friends ever since. In sixth year we took a forced camping trip to find and kill pieces of a dark lord's soul. Our other friend Ron flaked on us and left us for dead. That's when the three of us became family. That was what? Clost to twenty years ago." Harry said digging into his plate.

"The summer of 1997. 19 years ago. My God we were all so young back then. Fighting a grown up war with kid's spells and old guns we found in a trunk in my parent's basement." Hermione said looking wistful.

"We're still young. We're powerful magicals, we're in the mage level on the Merlin scale. We'll live another 110 years easy, 140 if we take care of ourselves." Harry said said with a smile.

"Speaking of living that long, you had 12 crates of MREs in your bag. Not cases mind you, crates. That's 480 MREs. Those things have a long shelf life but it's not forever." Hermione said.

"Really?" Harry asked scratching his chin.

"Yes really, they were stored in a black supply box." Hermione said looking at the list on her clipboard. "Do you ever eat them?" she asked.

"Only when I can't get anything good or I can't cook my own meals. Every full resupply comes with a case of them." Harry said with a shrug. "What else was in the bag anything good?" Harry asked.

"Well there was a lot. Let's just run down the list. Did you know that your bag was full of loaded guns, most of them cocked without the safeties on?" Hermione asked with a smile.

"I mean, I kind of figured as much. Half the time I clear a room I just summon the guns off the ground into the bag. What are we looking at in terms of numbers?" Harry asked.

"Well, we unloaded all of them and separated the guns from the ammo." She said pointing to the stack of shrunken black trunks that were stacked on the floor. "We have a magically expanded trunk full to the top of loose 9mm rounds. We're talking thousands of round. We have a trunk half full of loose .223 ammo. A trunk a third of the way full of .45acp. And we have a trunk full of ammo boxes packed with calibers like 7.62x51, .380acp, .357 magnum, and .308 and 30-06 match grade." She said pointing out the tagged shrunken trunk on the table.

"Wow, and that was all from unloading guns that were just laying around in my bag?" Harry asked.

"Yes. The guns are in those seven trunks." She said.

"So we have enough guns and ammo to arm a good sized military?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Yes, now let's talk about the safe way to store explosives and incendiary ammunition." Hermione said.

"What now?" Harry asked laughing.

"Bricks of C4, semtex, crates of frag grenades and flash bangs. Aircraft ordnance shrunken down in old wood boxes. You had six crates of hellfire missiles in an ammo can along with a hundred shrunken belts of 50 cal aircraft ammo. If one of those things went off in your bag it would have leveled a few dozen city blocks." She said.

"That's not cool." Harry said. "Was there anything good in there besides all the dangerous things that go boom?" Harry asked.

"Let's see. You had 2,750 rounds of enchanted 9mm hollow points, 1,600 rounds of enchanted .223, 1,400 rounds of enchanted .300 win mag, 1,050 enchanted 12 gage sulg and buckshot shells, and 675 rounds of enchanted .500 nitro also have crates full of regular bulk NATO ammo cans full of bulk brass. We're talking thousands of rounds of 9mm, 7.62x51, 5.56, and 50BMG. That trunk has the guns we just collected. Most of them look like junk but we have about two dozen of them and gun belts full of ammo for them. You have about 280,000 liters of gas thanks to the tanks I sent you and a few dozen gas tanks we found with small bits of fuel left at the bottom of the tank. Also we found a whole trunk worth of random jewelry and bricks of cash. You had a bunch of perishable goods like boxes of candy bars, bags of beef jerky, and cans of soda. You also had a bunch of luxury items like cases of cigarettes, bottles of booze, and boxes of cigars. Normally this is where I would tell you you have a problem but seeing as we ended up a 130 years in the past I'm going to let your hoarder like need to loot your kills and buy in bulk go for now." Hermione said looking at the three page long list of junk they found.

"So this is what an intervention feels like." Harry said smirking.

"Harry we love you but your need to rob from the people you kill is getting out of hand." Neville said in a serious tone.

"You don't get to talk Mr. half full magazines. My husband had half the amount of magical ammo you had in half empty magazines plus all the rest of the guns and bulk loose ammo." Hermione said.

"Changing mags during a firefight is something we were taught to do." Neville defended. "And thanks to us we have all this to work with. The only thing in your bag was a trunk full of trunks, your tent, and those magical food bars." Neville said with a smirk.

"True, I do feel like I came to a potluck without a pot." Hermione said.

"At least you had all that AK47 ammo and guns and stuff. I literally only have books, some MREs, and a trunk full of trunks." Abby said.

"Don't feel too bad about it. You're normal. I am not. On the up side if I ration out my cigarettes I can keep smoking Marlboro Reds until the company starts making them again. If they make them. Shit I hope this timeline is like ours but with more magic." Harry said pulling out his gold cigarette case taking out a cigarette.

"Please can you not smoke that in this room?" Hermione asked.

"Okay. Oh, I forgot to add my mission vehicles. I have my 2015 BMW M3, 2015 Jeep Rubicon, 2013 Ferrari 458, 2009 Mercedes e500, 1986 Buick GNX, and my 1969 Boss 302 Mustang. I also have my Ducati Scrambler, and my 23 foot Hacker craft gentlemen's racer speed boat." Harry said opening his gold pill box to show off his cars. "Also don't forget the aircraft. I have my P-51 Mustang, my F5-E, and my Gazelle helicopter." He added lifting out the tray to show off the shrunken aircraft.

"With your two planes, the Learjet from your bag, and Neville's Spitfire, Hawk 200 fighter jet, and his Gazelle we have air travel covered." Hermione said marking it down on the list.

"Oh I forgot I have my car with me. Add a yellow 2010 Corvette Z06 to the list." She said pulling the shrunken car out of her jacket pocket.

"Nice. You're a speed freak?" Harry asked.

"Not really. It was my grandfather's car. He loved it almost as much as he loved me. He died five years ago and left the car to me." She said smiling a sad smile as she looked at the matchbox sized car in her hand.

"Sorry to hear about that. Maybe we can buy some land in the middle of nowhere and build a track so we can take our cars out for a spin. For now I guess we're going to have to stick to horses but that's going to be inconvenient. If we're constantly going to be on the move building up our Shipping company then taking care of a horse is going to be tough." harry said.

"I may have a solution to that, let me look into it. But I think we need to take a few weeks and figure out what we're doing here. Are we going to stay out here in the middle of nowhere? Are we going to move to a big city? Are we going to attempt a trip to the UK? These are all things we have to figure out. Also, just how crazy is this world? Are we talking about our past with a few dark creatures? Or are we talking about a land of magic and fairies." Hermione said.

"Well I think we need to hit the sack for now. It's close to four in the morning and I've been up for the last three days straight." Harry said vanishing the empty plates and collecting the silverware. He walked into the kitchen and dumped it in the sink, when he came back out Hermione and Neville were gone.

"They said they were going to bed in the blue room." Abby said finishing her beer and vanishing the empty bottle.

"Then that means you're in the gold room. Let me show you to your room." Harry said leading her out of the dining room and down a hall passed the living room. He stopped at a door and opened it showing her a white room with big gold furniture. There was a big king size bed with a gold headboard and white bedding. Gold nightstands, a gold and white fainting couch, and a gold writing desk with a gold and white chair.

"It's a bit…" She paused to come up with a good word to describe the room.

"Gaudy? Ridiculous? Overly flashy? Yes it's all of that. I took this furniture from a drug kingpin. It's where I got my Ferrari. It looks a bit flashy but the bed is super soft and the sheets are egyptian cotton." Harry said walking to the door on the other side of the room. "This is the bathroom. It's white marble and gold to keep up the theme. You can open your tent over here and get your things or you can stay in your tent, it's up to you. I'm in the bedroom at the end of the hall if you need anything and Hermione and Neville are next door. See you in the morning." Harry said walking to the door.

"Harry, I just wanted to say thank you for coming to rescue me, and also thank you for your hospitality. I know I'm an outsider for now, but I hope that one day soon I'll be a part of your family too. It's like you said we're stuck together." Abby said with a awkward smile.

"Relax Abs, you're fine. Now get some rest." Harry said closing the door behind him as he walked out of her room.

Harry entered his room which was painted dark green and had big dark wood furniture. There were swords and antique flintlock guns on the walls and a six foot stuffed dragon's head on the wall over the fireplace. Harry took a hot shower and passed out on his big four post bed. As he drifted off a thought hit him. For the last twenty years he always had something to do. A job or task to complete. For the first time in a long time he didn't have shit to do tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: again the first few lines of this chapter are taken from the other story but after that it's all very different. Things get very weird after this.

The next morning was spent mostly in the cube planing. After lunch Harry dressed in the clothes he took/bought the night before over his everyday, thin dragon hide vest. He hit them with a color change spell from brown the black. He pulled on his undercover shoulder gun rig under his jacket. He picked up his Sig226 off the nightstand and ejected the magazine. He topped off the four magical hollow point rounds he used the day before from the box of ammo he kept in his bed side table. He slid the gun into the shoulder rig and the whole rig vanished from sight. He add the the black leather gun belt and nickel plated colt to the ensemble. He checked himself out in the mirror and he looked like he stepped off the set of Tombstone. When he came out of his room he saw Hermione coming out of the blue room with a big stack of books.

"Hey Mia, how do I look?" He asked.

"Good, but it's missing something. You need a hat." She said walking into the dining room.

"Yeah, I forgot to grab one last night. What did you do with my gun cleaning kit?" Harry asked following her into the dining room.

"It's back in your bag along with the standard Operative supplies, your guns, a few hundred rounds of enchanted ammo, and a gas tank with a few hundred liters of fuel." She said setting the books on the table and passing one to Abby.

Harry pulled out a rolled up green camp blanket out of his bag and rolled it out on the table. Inside was a bag with cleaning rods, brushes, patches, and a huge can of Ballistol. He pulled the Colt from his gun belt, emptied out the three unfired rounds, and cast a reparo charm on the gun bringing it up to factory new but it was still dirty. He could just hit it with a cleaning charm but instead he took the gun apart and cleaned it by hand as the girls talked about enchantments. The chatter and simple task was calming and enjoyable. He put the gun back together and worked the action a few times. He loaded six rounds as Neville walked in dressed in a suit, his tactical dragon hide vest, and grey unspeakable robes.

"Harry, you're only taking that colt with you? And you're leaving your bag?" Neville asked.

"No, I have my Sig in my undercover rig and a second magazine in my coat. That's 306 loaded rounds. If I can't get the job done with that I don't deserve to live." Harry said with a smirk as he grabbed the gold bar he cut from the night before out of the top crate and cut off five bigger chunks of gold with a spell. He hit them with a heat spell to make the five bits look more rough around the edges.

"Right, I'm going back to the mine today. I'm going to set up a few paired portkeys and see if there are any more zombies. Do you think the invisibility enchantments on the grey robes are enough to not be seen?" Neville asked.

"That should do, and hey brooms might be an accepted thing here." Harry said,

"Walk you out?" Neville asked.

"Yeah." Harry said putting the five gold nuggets into a cloth bag.

They walked out of the cube into the bright desert sun but not heat. The temperature was only about mid sixty. The two men nodded to each other and headed off in different directions. Neville got on his broom, activated his invisibility enchantment and took off heading south. Harry popped into town behind the store. He walked a few stores over before coming out of the alley. He walked through the town trying to get his barrings on things. He saw a few shops that peaked his interest. He saw a gun shop, a general store and a blacksmith, but the thing that was most shocking was the small magic shop. He stopped in front and looked inside to see an expanded space full of bits and bobs, it was like most of the things from diagon alley were represented in the shop. He walked to the bank and up to the teller who looked like a man in his early forties and dropped the nuggets on the counter.

"I'd like to trade those for cash." Harry said.

"Let's see what we're working with." The man said pulling out a wand and running it over the gold which confused Harry for a second. "99.9% pure gold. Good heavens above, how did you get gold so pure?" the teller asked.

"I too am a wizard. How much is gold going for here?" Harry asked.

"Normally we pay $10 an ounce for the gold slag the Williamson mine trades us, we pay $15 for mostly pure gold brought in by traders or folks passing through with savings bars, but for gold this pure I need to talk to my manager." He said calling another older man over. This older man checked the gold with an old bent wand as well and nodded.

"How, if you don't mind me asking, did you get gold this pure?" The other guy asked.

"Magic. I found a way to smelt it. Now how much can I get for it?" Harry asked.

"For gold this pure we can give you $20 an ounce. We just have to weigh it and we'll see what we're looking at." He said getting out a set of gold scales.

It came to just over 28 ounces of gold. He got $560. He took half of it in paper money and the other half in coins. Harry spent a minute in the bank looking at the ten and twenty dollar gold coins in the small cloth bag he was handed. Silver dollars were one thing. He had seen those but never coins with this value.

He walked back to the store he robbed/shopped last night. The store was called Holland and sons Haberdashery. He walked in and saw the store looked a lot different in the daylight. He could actually see the things hanging on the racks and folded on tables. More importantly he could see the wizard's robes on racks in the back but the thing that grabbed his attention was the hats on the shelves above the racks of clothes. He picked up the wide brimmed black hat off the shelf in the front by the window and put it on his head.

"What do you think?" He asked turning to the old man behind the counter.

"It looks good on you." The old man said with a smile. "Red Holland." The man said coming out from behind his counter to greet Harry.

"Harry Steel." Harry said shaking the man's hand.

"Was there something you was looking to buy, aside from the hat of course." The old man said with a smile.

"Yes we came here by wagon and when we crossed the river our bags with our clothes fell out of the wagon and were washed away." Harry lied smoothly.

"Oh how terrible." Red said.

"Yes, I'm going to need to get a bunch of things. Starting with this hat and that very big leather carpet bag." Harry said adjusting the hat and looking at his reflection in the small mirror on the wall.

"Say you wouldn't happen to be the new deputy marshal would you?" Red asked.

"No, I can't say that I am. Why?" Harry asked.

"We've been in need of more deputies for a while now. We lost two of them to a bunch of undead about a month ago, and our last deputy died in the werewolf attack about a week ago. Now we're just stuck with old marshal John Turner and he don't leave town unless he has to. I asked because you look like a lawman. Sharp eyes, stiff back, and your head on a swivel. Also folks usually don't just come to Eureka unless they got a job lined up." Red said as Harry picked out a few things.

"Well like I said we didn't come to Eureka by choice, we kind of got lost and ended up here. I'm glad we had a lot of money and supplies. But we do need clothes." Harry said.

Over the course of an hour Harry bought three more black suits like the one he was wearing, five white shirts, two black vests, two red vests, a few ties, and two long black heavy leather long rifle frock coats. He got four simple long skirts in dark brown, blue, green, and black as well as six white blouses that went with them for the girls. He added two white shawls, four pairs of gloves, two corset type white vests, and two long jackets cloaks. He grabbed two corset dresses in black and red. Two black small top hats, and two bonnets. By the time he got to the leather goods he needed a second carpet bag.

He found a pair of black riding boots like the ones he was wearing, and two pairs of mary jane style shoes for the girls. As Red was adding up the total Harry added a second wide brimmed hat for Neville and a bowler hat in case he wanted that instead. He also grabbed a box of small cigars from the counter, took one out and put it in his mouth. The whole purchase came to $248 he handed Red $250 and took the two heavy brown leather carpet bags off the counter. Once he got outside he shrank the two bags, put them in his pocket, and lit the small cigar with his zippo.

He walked down the street and when people tipped their hat he tipped back and smiled. Now he felt like a cowboy. He walked into a saloon through the swinging doors and had to fight the grin off his face as he moseyed on up to the bar and order a shot of whiskey. He could hear the score from For a Few Dollars More in his head as he took a drink of the dirty rubbing alcohol water they called whiskey and surveyed the room as he puffed on his small cigar. The room was populated by fifteen people and all of them could have walked off a Hollywood set. From the bar keep in the red vest white apron, and black arm garters. To the three working girls standing at the railing of the upstairs balcony in half dun up corset dresses and smeared lipstick making eyes at him. To the the five men playing poker at a table getting loud over a bad hand. The old lone drunk sitting in the back corner dressed in black with a marshal star on his jacket. There was even a preacher having drinks with a working girl. Harry smiled, paid for his drink, and walked out as the men playing cards started a bar fight.

He walked into the magic shop next and found an older woman walking around the store as a younger woman was sitting at a counter brewing a potion. Both women looked at him when he came in and Harry smiled.

"Harry Steel, I was just passing through town and I was shocked to see your store." Harry said holding up his wand to show them he too was a magic user.

"I don't know why, magic has been known for about twenty years now. But I guess things are different across the pond." The older woman in her 60's said with a smile.

"I wouldn't know. We dimension hopped by accident and ended up here." Harry said judging their reaction, he knew he could always stun them and wipe their memories if he needed to.

"Really? You must feel like a fish out of water. Are things very different from your home?" She asked.

"For the most part what I can see is the same but their are subtle things like free magic use. Walking dead roaming around and things like that." Harry said.

"Yes, that would be shocking. Magic is known and most of us use it freely out here in the west but in big cities we tend to hide it more. Out here people know what we did to close the rift twenty years ago and they let us be, but back east normal people look at us funny if we cast a spell. Overseas has to be like that as well, we've never been mind you but folks seem stuffy over there. No offence." She said.

"None taken, if the people here are as dull as they were in my timeline then stuffy is the nicest word I would use in mixed company." Harry said making both women laugh.

"It's good to laugh about that, for a while there wasn't much to laugh about out here. I'm Alice Rosewood by the way, I don't remember if I said that or not." She said.

"You did not, but then again I did drop a shocker of a fact in your lap." Harry said.

"Yes, it was a shock. I run this little magical emporium and I'm the town Mayor. I got the title when my husband passed two years back. We're a small town of 1,130-ish folks. Not bad for a mining town." She said.

"How many magicals are in this town?" Harry asked.

"Well let's see, this is my granddaughter Mary, my son Bobby work in the bank. His boss, is a wizard. My daugher in law Kate is a witch, Red Holland's wife is a witch, as is his son Scott. Am I missing someone Mary?" She asked.

"Smith, his real name is Sam but he's a gunsmith and everyone calls him Smith." Mary said looking up from her work.

"Right there's Smith. So that's what, eight of us? Not bad for a small town like this. They keep our little business up and running. We also turn a profit selling oddities to the locals. Enchanted things, potions, and what not." she said.

"I see you have almost one of everything I know of and a few things only my sister would know in your shop. Well the town just got four more resident. Me, my sister Hermione, her husband Neville Blackwell, and a friend of ours Abby Gibson. We would love to invite you to dinner and pick your brain about the way the world works I'm sure. Not that talking to me would be helpful much, my sister is the brains of the family. I was a magic cop back in my time. So was my brother Neville." Harry said. He was playing a game here, it was what he did most of the time for his job. People wanted to talk by nature. But they wanted to talk to someone they knew. The more small bits of information he shared with Alice the more she would help them later. And now that he knew she was the town's mayor it was even more important to get on her good side.

"Well if you're looking to take up the trade again the marshall is always looking for deputies and he's desperate now. The pay is not great and the work is dangerous, but people tend to treat the marshal with respect and gratitude." She said.

"Well I don't think we need jobs right away I'll look into that. You would be the second person today to tell me about the Marshal situation. But we have some gold on us, also I'm sure my sister is going to want to buy a bunch of stuff. She's always got ten of everything she needs and coming here without her lab is going to drive her mad. I can see a very expensive shopping trip in her future. As for me, you wouldn't happen to have any Ogden's Firewhiskey and butterbeer would you?" Harry asked.

"No, I don't carry those, I do have Gorman's brand Firewhiskey, it's a bit more smokey and warmer. I also have Cutler's Butterbeer. We do carry Honeydukes chocolate and chocolate frogs if you're looking for a taste of home." She said pointing to a section of foods and drinks. Harry picked through the stock and took a bottle of firewhiskey, 6 bottles of butterbeer, and some chocolate. It all came to $2.90, Harry handed her a $5 coin and waved off the change.

"Thank you, please have your sister come by anytime. I live in the back of this shop. If you ever need anything just knock on my door." She said as Harry open one of his bags and put the candy bars and bottles inside and shrank it with a wave of his hand.

"I'm going to make a few more stops before heading back to get my sister." Harry said.

"Where are you staying?" She asked.

"We have a magic tent outside of the city." Harry said.

"That's not safe at all! You should relocate inside the city walls. We have wards up to protect the city. Good strong wards. If you need a place to set up your tent we have a small patch of dirt out behind the shop, also they have rooms for rent above the bar, the casino, and there's a border house." She said looking worried.

"Is it really that bad?" Harry asked.

"There are huge spiders, snakes, wolves, and coyotes. Not to mention the undead horrors and werewolves out there just walking around. Please, relocate inside the walls of the town." She said.

"I think I will relocate, what's the going rate for the patch of land out back?" Harry asked.

"Nothing, the fact that you and your family are going to be safe is payment enough. It's like you said, there were eight of us in this town before you came here, now there are four more and we have to stick together." She said.

"Well, how about this, I'll pay you $5 a day to set up my tent out back." Harry said setting a five dollar coin on the counter.

"That's crazy. You can rent a room over the bar for $2 a night. For another half a dollar he throws in a good hot meal." She said.

"Well what do you think is fair, we have gold and we're willing to pay." Harry said.

"I said free." She said laughing.

"Free is too cheap and $2 is too much, how about we split the difference and call it a dollar?" Harry asked holding out his hand.

"Fine by me, your paid for five days." She said shaking his hand and pocketing the coin.

"Good, I'll be back in a bit." Harry said walking out laughing.

Harry walked passed the barber and the general store and into the gun store. As soon as he walked in he stopped to look at all the pretty hanging on the walls and sitting in glass cases.

"What can I do you for?" Asked the tall thin man in his early thirties sitting behind the counter cleaning a nickel plated Remington cartridge conversion with silver grips.

"I just got to town and wanted to see what you had. Alice tells me you're a mage and you have nice stock. I love shiny things that go boom. My sisters says I have a problem but I just call myself a collector." Harry said.

"I used to have that same problem until I found a way to have all the shiny I wanted. Sam Hooper. Everyone calls me Smith." The tall man said standing up and wiping off his hand before he offered it to Harry. When they touched Harry felt a small bit of energy pass through his hand.

"Harry Steel. You do have some really nice stock here." Harry said looking at at the guns in the glass case.

"If you're looking for something real nice I have a few special items in the back. The world is a dangerous place after all and you don't want to get caught out with a gun that misfires." Smith said.

"Like I said I'm always looking for something new. I don't have much coin on me but I have some gold nuggets if you're willing to take that." Harry said feeling the magic coming off the back room.

"For a fellow mage I'm willing to work out a deal." Smith said.

"Good let's see your stock." Harry said.

"Can you lock the door and flip the sign?" Smith asked pulling out a battered red wood wand.

"Sure." Harry said locking the door and flipping the sign.

When he turned around Smith was setting a wood rifle case on the counter. He tapped the locks with his wand and they popped open. He opened the lid and turned the case to Harry showing him it was full of hand engraved mirror polished guns with gold inlay and white ivory handles. There was set of Winchester lever action rifles, two Colt Single Action Armys with 4.75 barrels, two S&W Schofields with shortened five inch barrels, two colt cloverleafs, and a set of gold derringers.

"I want." Harry said without realizing he said anything which made Smith laugh.

"All of these are enchanted to never chip, scratch, and always go boom. They shoot straight as hell thanks to the precision rifling I did and these Winchesters are not even on the market yet. I know a guy at the winchester factory and he got me these actions. I made the rest of these guns myself. These are next year's model 1886 chambered in 45-70 for when you have to fight off a troll or big spider. The tube holds eight shots plus one in the chamber in case you run into a band of goblins or undead. This stock and foregrip is carved ivory. Over time this will yellow and the carvings of wolves will stand out in deeper relief. I did all of this engraving by hand. The pair of rifles took me weeks of work but they are some of my finest work. They come with two boxes of smokeless 45-70 that hits like a sledge hammer. The french have been working with smokeless powder and I have my own mix that's a bit more snappy than theirs. The action is enchanted for strength to handle the over cooked rounds. All of the guns in this case have that enchantment." Smith said untying the leather cords that held the top rifle in place and handing it to Harry.

Harry worked the action and it was buttery smooth and locked up with a good crisp mechanical clink. He shoulder the rifle and looked down the sights. The top of the gun even had small engraved lines to cut down on glare.

"I will take the pair, I don't care what you charge. Now what's with the colts?" Harry asked setting the rifle back in it's place on the red felt of the case.

"Hand engraved with gold inlay and ivory handles. They're charmed to shoot straight and never chip or break. It's the same as the Schofields, which are cut to take a .45lc." Smith said picking one of the colts up and handing it to Harry.

"These feel really crisp and the trigger is nice and light." Harry said.

"Yeah, I'd avoid playing with these when you're drunk you'll blow your foot off." Smith said pulling two black leather double gun belts from off the wall and putting them on the counter. "It comes with leather. Every handgun I sell does." Smith added.

"I'm guessing these small guns have the same features as the other revolvers?" Harry asked.

"They do with one exception. They take standard colt 45 cartridges. I expanded the cylinders to accept the bigger cartridges. It took some fiddling but I got it to work. They pack a bigger kick but it's an easier cartridge to find and it's better for killing what you're shooting at." Smith said.

"Now that's a good bit of magic. Would you mind explaining how that works to my sister? She's the more learned of the two of us." Harry said taking a round off his belt and putting it in the cloverleaf small cylinder. It fit and there was room for the cylinder to spin.

"I will if you take the whole case." Smith said.

"Like I said, name your price for the case and ten boxes of colt 45 and as many boxes of the smokeless 45-70 you have." Harry said.

"For the rifles it's going to be $200 for each one. Another $200 for the colts and $150 for the Schofields. I can give you the cloverleafs and the dangers for $250. Boxes of 50 rounds go for $.50 each. The smokeless .45-70 comes in boxes of 50 for $2.50. I have 20 boxes. So that's what?" Smith said adding it up in his head.

"That's $1,057.25? Gold is going for $20 an ounce in town at the bank so that's about, 52 ounces? Does that sound right to you?" Harry asked pulling out the shrunken gold bar and expanding it.

"Yeah, that sounds right to me." Smith said eyeing the brick of gold with a shocked look on his face.

"You have a scal I'm guessing?" Harry asked carving off a chunk with a spell.

"I use it to measure lead for casting. It's not very accurate." Smith said picking up a scale from under the counter.

"Well as long as we come in just over three pounds were okay. Anything over the 52 ounces can be a tip." Harry said as Smith set up the weights.

They weighed out three pounds and Harry pulled out one of his carpet bags and added the two double gun belts, the boxes of ammo and the shrunken case with the guns. He was about to leave the store when he saw a very nice short double barrel coach gun with gold engravings of a stagecoach at full gallop on the wall by the doors.

"I'll take this coach gun and six boxes of brass shells too." Harry said grabbing the shotgun and checking the lock up and triggers.

"$24 for the gun and $6 for the shells." Smith said grabbing the six boxes of shotgun shells off the shelf as Harry took out the coins to pay. He set them on the counter before tossing the gun and the shells into the bag. He re-shrunk the bag and shook Smith's hand.

"Pleasure doing business with you Smith, I'll have my sister come by some time to talk to you." Harry said opening the front door and flipping the sign before he walked out.

"Please do, and if you ever feel the need to buy more guns come see me first. I'm always working on something. You wouldn't happen to be the..." Smith started to say but Harry cut him off.

"The new deputy marshal? no, but I think the universe is trying to tell me to take the job." Harry said tipping his hat as he walked out of the shop.

Harry made one more stop at a horse pen at the edge of town to ask the price of a horse before popping back to the cube. He walked in and found the two women pouring over books on the dining room table the same way they were when he left three hours ago. Harry un-shrank the carpet bags and set them on the table.

"I got us all two outfits each, and six shirts, I also got you girls some extra bits. I was not sure about the size but a few spells will fix that. Neville's not back yet from his trip to the mine?" Harry asked.

"Not yet but it's and hour flight to get there and he wanted to do a fly over the area, plus he's armed to the teeth so I'm not worried." Hermione said opening the bags and looking at the skirts and blouses. "Simple and plane. I like it." She said holding up the green skirt.

"I figured you two would want to go with a more school marm look instead of street walker, but I got you both a few corsets and I also added two fancy dresses and hats which are a very important part of the wardrobe by the way. You feel almost naked without a hat on. I have a bunch of cash left over, and man is this money very ease to counterfeit. We could make stack of this stuff and no one would know the difference. And the coins we could make out of lead and plate them in gold." Harry said holding up a ten dollar bill to the light.

"Why tempt the law?" Hermione said as Neville walked into the room.

"She right you know, the US Secret Service was created to crack down on counterfeiters. Or it was. You know until we get confirmation of the time line that's going to be annoying." Abby said.

"Well I can say without a doubt we're not in the past." Neville said dropping into a seat.

"More zombies?" Harry asked.

"No and nothing is going on with the mine. But I set up a few paired portkeys if we ever want to check it later. On the way there however I did spot five huge tarantulas the size of a beetle and I'm talking about the car. I took them out with my .300 win mag rifle just to make sure they don't come this way. It took 3-4 head shots to bring down each of them. That's not something I remember from history. We sidestepped into someone else's past. Now we just have to see what else has changed. How did it go for you Harry?" Neville asked.

"Much better then yours did. I have confirmation about this history. Magic is out in the open, out west people practice it without so much as a blinked eye. In the big cities to the east they don't take to it as much, and the stuffy europeans most likely still hide away. There are eight magic users in the town. There is also a magic shop. I set up a place where we can move the cube to behind her shop for a dollar a day. She's also expecting a visit from you Mia to ask questions. Nev. I have our clothes in this bag. I got you two hats to try on. It's super important to have a good hat. Gold is going for about $15 an ounce, but the pure gold we have will fetch us $20 an ounce. Everyone I talked to asked if I was the new deputy marshal, they are in desperate need of some as the last ones died. I also found a gun shop runned by a wizard." Harry said.

"What did you buy now?" Hermione asked as Harry pulled the gun case out and expanded it.

"Toys. shiny shiny toys for all of us." Harry said opening the locks on the case and showing off the guns inside.

"Oh those are pretty." Neville said.

"And magically enchanted. Smith the gunsmith is a wizard. Neville I got you one of these rifles and this set of Schofields that take .45 long colt," Harry said handing him the guns out of the case. "They came with nice new shiny black leather gun belts. For you ladies I got you each a Cloverleaf and a gold deringer. They both take colt 45 rounds too so watch out for the kick. I also got you a good coach gun Mia." Harry said handing them the guns. He took off his gun belt and put on the new belt with the two new colts. "How do I look?" Harry asked posing with his rifle in his left hand and his colt in his right.

"Like a spaghetti western character." Hermione said.

"Then mission accomplished." Harry said loading nine rounds into his rifle. "Also I'm going to need you to expand the mag tube of this rifle. Nine rounds is not enough." Harry said.

"No it's not enough if there are huge spiders walking about." Hermione said looking at the huge 45-70 rounds. "You think those will do the job?" She asked.

"They should, if not we have our guns as back up. But wherever possible, unless we think we're going to die I'd like us to use the guns of this time period if we're around people. If we have to shoot someone I don't want to have to draw my sig to do it. There are too many questions in that." Harry said.

"I agree, unless we run into those big fucking spiders again. I almost crapped my pants when I saw them." Neville said.

"I'll look into expanding the mag tube, but there is nothing I can do for the revolvers. The only fast reload you can do there is carry more guns for more rounds on hand or we use the scofield design and I make some speed loaders for it." Hermione said nodding.

"Also the price of horses is ridiculous. Pack horses are cheap but a good riding horse is almost $200!" Harry said.

"$200 Harry? You're sticker shocked over $200?" Hermione asked.

"Do you have any idea what $200 can buy you in this time period? All the clothes I bought and the two very nice leather bags were less than $250. We don't have stables in the cube. Also we have to take care of a horse. It's bad enough their slow and uncomfortable but they eat and shit like a horse." Harry said.

"Well lucky for you we've been looking into that. You see where as you have guns and explosives and cars in your bag we have our libraries. Abby and I are working on making living gargoyles. Basically big metal sculptures of horses that act like real live horse when activated. But if we're going to be enchanting all this stuff then we need more supplies." Hermione said.

"I don't know what half the stuff in the store was but I'm sure Alice at the magic shop has what you're looking for. By the way Alice is the town mayor so don't try to bargain her down on anything." Harry said.

"Good to know." Hermione said.

"If she doesn't have what you need we'll fly to the next big town and set up a portkey network."

"That's something we should do no matter what. I bet you can get a better price for gold in a big city like Chicago or New York, and we should see if Dragon Alley is still in New York." Hermione said.

"I'll make you a deal, let's get our feet under us out here for a week or so and then I'll head east to set up portkeys. Also there's job openings for deputy marshals. I can only imagine what that job's like out here." Harry said.

"We'll let me change into these clothes while Harry moves us into town." Hermione said taking some of the clothes with her.

Harry popped the cube into town behind Alice's shop and went back inside as his sister came out wearing the white blouse, brown skirt, and a scowl.

"Harry, I know your intention was to get us something to blend in but the skirt is way too long. I keep tripping over it. There's a reason the female Operative skirt suits are knee length and loose. This corset is digging into my hips, and the shawl is way too grandmother for my tastes." She said looking uncomfortable.

"Well, fix it. We have time. Wear whatever the hell you want. Who's going to complain. This isn't our time line. Fuck it up as much as you want. I just thought you would want to blend in a bit. There is a whole store full of pre made clothes. They also sell bolts of cloth, thread, and buttons. You made the operative's suits, make something you like. I like the suits, they make me look like Lee Van Cleef from For a Few Dollars More." Harry said putting a cigar in his mouth.

"Well give me a few minutes." She said walking back into her room.

"You think I can get a poncho, hat, and shearling vest?" Neville asked with a smirk.

"Sure, you'll look good Blondie." Harry said with a grin.

"This is so cool. I wonder if we can hunt down a group of bandits?" Neville said.

"We should be able to. Like I said they need deputies." Harry said dropping into a chair next to him. They cracked open the bottle of firewhiskey and by the time they finished their glass Hermione came back out. She had on brown slacks under her skirt which was cut to the ankle with a slit up the front to mid thigh and the two sides were pinned back. She had the corset vest over her white shirt and it was colored brown and cut to fit her waist. Over the top of that she had a brown leather duster.

"Neville I took your riding boots and leather jacket, I'll stop by the store and get you a replacement. Maybe I can take back a few of the things I don't like. Abby you should go try some of it on and see what you need to take back or change." She said going to the trunk with the revolvers. She grabbed a colt in a brown leather gun belt out of the trunk and took the colt single action out. She put the gun belt on and shrank it to fit her and shrank the holster to fit her new colt cloverleaf. She loaded the cloverleaf and the derringer. She dropped the colt into the holster and tucked the derringer into her coat pocket.

"You look, what's the word, where people dress in brown and have brass and google's." Harry said.

"Steampunk." Abby said walking into her room with the bag of clothes.

"That's it. It's a good look for you Mia. Very cool." Harry said standing up.

"Except there is no steampunk in 1885. Do you think this is too much?" She asked

"Maybe, but who cares? You'll either start a trend or you'll be Helena Bonham Carter weird. Either way this is you dealing with the fact that we're stuck here so dress how ever you like." Harry said. Abby came out of her room in a black waistcoat dress that came to the knee, over a white shirt with black slacks under it and the maryjanes.

"Will this work? If so I'll make a few of these and you can take the dress and the skirts back." She asked.

"Like I told her, we're stuck here. This is not the past. Wear whatever you want. My sister is inventing steampunk and you can help her." Harry said.

"Good, I like this dress, and the slacks make it more practical. I wish I had a long tailed black jacket to go over it. I need some fabric as well." She said looking down at herself.

"Well, let's all head into town before it gets too late and they close up the shops." Harry checking his watch. It was just after four.

They all walked out of the cube which was tucked in behind Alice's shop between her backdoor and the mountain wall fifteen feet away. Harry lead them to the haberdashery and Red made the exchanges for them with a smile and a knowing look to Harry. They bought a few bolts of black and brown cloth and the four tanned cow hides he had along with a bag of buttons, and a few spools of thread. They put all the purchases into the carpet bag after Harry cast an expansion charm on it before heading to Alice's place. As predicted Hermione just started stacking things on the counter and Harry knew they were going to need more cash so he made a run to the bank to trade in 50 more ounces of gold for $1,000. When he came back to the store Alice was adding things up and chatting with Hermione about something. Harry paid and they took it all back to the cube. Harry invited Alice back to the cube and agreed to escort her granddaughter back to the farm at the edge of the town by the back gate. When he came back to the cube they were sitting around the dinner table chatting and laughing. Harry made stuffed pork chops, with mashed potatoes and gravy. They ate and Harry escorted Alice back to her place ten feet from their door. While he was outside he heard shouting from the main gate followed by gunfire. Neville came out the open door with his winchester rifle.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"It sound's like a commotion by the main gate." Harry said summoning his rifle and a box of more rounds. "You want to go check it out?" He asked as Hermione came to the door.

"Yeah, let's go see." Neville said.

"We'll be back in a bit, there's shooting at the main gate." Harry said before the two men ran off in that direction. They came to the main gate and saw the old marshal shooting at something with lever action rifle. Harry climbed up the twenty foot winding staircase to the gate tower with his brother following him. Harry finally got a good look at the marshal. He was an older man with grey hair and a grey beard. He had a frail look to him. Years of drinking and the stress of the job turned him into an old man before his time.

"What's going on?" Harry asked scanning the area for an enemy but he didn't see anything.

"God damned goblins. They keep trying to attack the gate. They tried to climb in but I shot one and they ran off. Who are you, I don't know you." He said giving them both a pointed look.

"Harry Steel and his is my brother in law Neville Blackwell. We just got to town. You know this gate could use some better lights. Some magical floodlights would let you see for miles and it would help guide lost people trying to find this place at night. It might also scare off the dogs and goblins." Harry said playing a game he liked to call keep them off balance. The marshal didn't know them and he didn't see them come in but to keep him from asking questions Harry kept jumping to new topics.

"Marshal John Turner. Magical flood light you say?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm sure my sister can make a few in a matter of minutes. For now I can cast a beacon charm that should last all night." Harry said waving his hand and a basketball sized globe of light formed. He floated it out to a few hundred feet out in front of the gate and fifty foot off the ground bathing the area in front of the gate in light for miles.

As soon as the ball was up Harry spotted movement in the landscape. He pointed it out to Neville and they both shoulder their rifles. Harry watched as a green four foot tall evil house elf looking creature in a loincloth, holding a gnarled looking five foot tall staff came out from behind a boulder to inspect the light. As soon as he showed his face Harry blew it off. There was screeching and six more came out and ran at the wall all of them had different weapons. Most of them had little more than pointy sticks, but two of them had old rusty cavalry sabers and one of them had a revolver. Harry and Neville made short work of them. Harry reached out with his magic and didn't feel anything. He summoned the goblin corpses and their things and dropped them on the ground inside the gate. He ran down and inspected them. They smelled horrible, and they looked like they never saw water in their life. He took the old rusty sabers and the gun. They were junk. The staff however had magic in it. They had a few things on them like old broken pocket watches and some coins. It looked like they collected the junk they found in the desert. Harry got back up on the tower and moved the bodies into a pile off to the side out in front of the gate and blasted them with a fire spell.

"Nice town you got here." Harry said with a smirk.

"What did you say you two did again?" the Marshal asked.

"We were in law enforcement." Harry said.

"You two wouldn't happen to be looking for a job would you?" He asked them with a tired smile.

"We are unemployed at the moment. What's the pay for a deputy marshal in this town?" Harry asked.

"$3 a day. Of course you also get first shot at bounties that come in and if you go on hunting parties you can sell some of the stuff you collect to a few shops. Like that goblin magic stick. Alice might be willing to take that off your hands for a dollar or two, the gun's go to Smith who pays a few dollars up to $15 for a good revolver. More for something really nice. We got the magical telegraph line and things have been coming in over the last four days but I don't have the manpower to handle it. The bank handles payments. It's good work, dangerous as hell, but good work. You two men look well suited for the job." He said.

"We'll think about it and get back to you in the morning. Are you stuck up here all night?" Harry asked.

"Not all night, the men in the town share the gate watch duties for a few extra dollars. My replacement should be here in a bit." John said.

"Well we'll see you tomorrow, and we'll see about those floodlights." Harry said.

"It was good to meet you Marshal." Neville said shaking the man's hand before he followed Harry down.

"Did you hear him? $3 a day. The contracts and bounties better be worth it." Harry said.

"So you think we should do it?" Neville asked.

"Hell yes, this sounds like fun, but we still need to find a real income source." Harry said.

When they walked into the cube the girls asked what happened and they told them about the goblin attack and the job offer. Hermione agreed that the gate could use a magical lantern and drew up some plans for one as the boys headed into the living room to watch For a Few Dollars More on Harry's big as 72 inch tv. They all had a smaller set up. A tv and a magical hard drive full of entertainment. All you had to do was put a DVD into the black box and a few seconds later the box spit it out and it was stored on the hard drive. Harry had over three terabytes of movies and tv shows stored on his hard drive. Every night he put on a different movie and tried to get through it. If it was boring he passed out on his big comfy brown leather couch. If it was a good movie he made it to the end and headed off to bed. This was all standard department stuff created by his sister and her team of eggheads. And as he sat there watching Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef on his big tv he thanked god for his sister. Because being stuck here would really suck if he didn't have his tv and he music collection.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day Harry and Neville dressed in black suits, black vest, and black ties over their every day dragon hide vests and undercover shoulder rigs with their Operative handguns. They pulled on their gun belts with their six shooters,black wide brimmed hats, and black leather dusters. They loaded up their bags with their gear and ammo, and headed out in search of adventure. They walked into the Marshal's office and John greeted them with a big grin.

"I see you boys want the jobs after all. Good, we got a list of shit a mile long from the telegraph that came in over the last few day. Here." He said tossing them each a round silver marshal star punched out of a silver dollar from his desk drawer.

"That's it? Don't we have to do something? Pass a test? Sign something? Swear an oath?" Harry asked looking at the silver star in a circle.

"Not really, I mean, you're going to do the job to the best of your abilities right?" John asked.

"Yes." Both men said.

"Well good, that's all I need to hear. Now we got three requests and two wanted posters. None of it's inside the city, you boys have horses right?" He asked.

"We have flying brooms if that's okay?" Harry asked.

"I guess. I've got to be straight with you two, I've never had magicals working for me before. So if you say brooms are as good as horses then by all means, us them. Now how familiar are you with the town and the surrounding area?" John asked.

"Not at all but we have a lot of magic that can help us get around. Now what are we looking at boss?" Harry asked pinning the star to his vest.

"Well we got reports of walking dead on the road from here to Ely. It's a little town about 70 miles east of here on the road, if you're flying then it's a lot closer I guess. Can you two handle that?" He asked pointing out the town and the road on a map hanging on the wall.

"We killed three dozen of them a few nights ago getting here." Neville said.

"Good while you're hunting those down to Ely, just north of there is a hideout we think. This gang of outlaws are a crazy bunch, they like to hit stagecoaches heading between bigger towns like Ely and Eureka from Salt Lake CIty. There could be as many as ten of them. We don't know because they don't leave witnesses by choice. They're lead by Wally Stokes and his brother Ricky. Both of them are bat shit crazy, they and their gang are wanted dead or alive, $300 each for the two brothers and $50 a head for their gang. They also took a Wells Fargo stagecoach and a shipment of silver certificates worth a lot of money. The certificates are numbered and anyone trying to cash one is going to be in trouble with the law but Wells Fargo is willing to buy them back for ten cents on the dollar. I'm also sure they have some ill gotten gains you can keep." He said.

"Sounds easy enough. Anything else?" Harry asked.

"There is but that's a good four days of work. And it's dangerous out there. But if you think you can handle more there's a request for assistance from the WIlliamson Mining company. It say's they got a goblin infestation in their mine north of town and they're willing to pay $2,500 to clean it out and $5 a head for every goblin you find. Also to the south east of here is a small settlement called Hamilton. It's a small old mining town with about a hundred people. They spotted more of those big ass spiders and they've been hiding in the town hall since last night. There's no real money in that one boys so I don't expect it to be high on your to do list." He said handing them the pieces of paper.

"We should go do that one first. I saw a bunch of those big suckers yesterday. They're no joke. We'll follow the road to get to Hamilton and see if we spot any undead. After we save the town we'll continue to Ely and on the way back we'll swing up north and get this gang. We'll scan the road for undead on the way back to town too and then after lunch we'll hit the mine." Neville said pointing the roads out on the map on the wall.

"Agreed. We'll see you in a few hours boss." Harry said copying the map as they walked out of the office and pulled their out brooms.

Soon they were in the air and heading south east following the road fifty foot off the ground, flying at a good pace, and scanning the area for undead. They found a few undead and they took them out from the air with their revolvers. Smith was right, the guns shot as accurately as their Sig226s. They were getting head shots a fifty feet on the first shot. They stopped long enough to take any guns, gun belts, coin, or blades off the dead before they torched them with a fire spell.

For the most part it was easy to spot the undead. They shambled down the road headed towards Eureka. Harry felt sorry for these poor souls. They were mindless, decomposing, lost killing machines. The only drive they had was to feed and even that was a challenge. They could barely walk, these zombies, unlike the ones they killed in the mine were not as fresh. They were older, and dried out. Their movements looked pained, and sad. You would have to be asleep and ten of them would have to attack you at once for them to take you down. These were scavengers. They ate long dead things on the side of the road. As he killed them he found himself saying. 'Go with god' under his breath. He was not hunting these undead horrors, he was providing the dead with a chance to rest.

With that being said they did run into a few fresher zombies. They were faster and more alert. They moved at a good walking pace and they could smell them as they approached. They also had the motor function enough to fire the guns in their hands but not enough to aim very well. It was like they knew from their old lives what the gun was and how to pull the trigger but not how to work their arm to aim well enough to get hits. They still dropped like a sack of hammers when you shot them in the head but you did have to dodge a few wide shots while you got them.

The thirty mile trip to Hamilton took about a half hour because of the twenty stops they made to kill the undead. The town was small. About 500 foot long and 300 foot wide and a good bit of that was taken up by a twenty foot tall thirty foot around rock formation sticking out of the ground with a mine shaft carved into it. The town had a few big buildings like a town hall building, a general store, and a small saloon. Around those buildings were 14 small shack style houses. The spiders were easy enough to spot as they approached the town.

Four big dark brown hairy tarantulas the size of SUVs were attacking the main building in the middle of town. They both came in closer but stayed a few hundred feet up. They pulled out their winchesters and Harry started off the attack by shooting the biggest one in the head. The round hit hard and it stunned the arachnid causing it to turn and look at them. He pumped four more rounds into it's head before it fell. As he was working on that one Neville was taking out the next biggest one. That one took three shots to bring down. The last two fell to three and two shot respectively. Harry scanned the area for more spiders as they reloaded and when he felt no more he flew down to the town hall building that looked like it was on it's last leg and only being held together by magic. He knocked on the door.

"Hello?! US Marshals out of Eureka! Anyone alive in there?! The big ass spiders are dead!" He called out. A few seconds later the door cracked open and he saw a bunch of scared haggard faces looking back at him.

"Hello. I'm deputy marshal Harry Steel, that there is my brother and partner deputy marshal Neville Blackwell. We took care of your spider problem. It looks like they did a number on your town hall, hell it looks like they did a number on your town. Here let me fix some of this." He said pulling out his wand and waving it at the building. In seconds the broken stone and mortar walls and cracked wood roof fixed itself. Neville flew around the town casting the spell at the damaged houses.

"Hello, I'm Roy Reed, I'm the town Mayor of Hamilton. We can't thank you enough for coming to our rescue. We don't have much in the way of money…" The old man in his sixties with salt and pepper hair and beard dressed in an old but well taken care of suit started to say but Harry cut him off.

"No need for that, we're just happy to help. It's terrible you all had to be stuck there all night. Are any of you wizards? These are good wards but you could use an upgrade." Harry said.

"My wife cast those wards. She put up all the wards around the town before she passed. She was the only real trained witch in our town." Roy said looking sad.

"Sorry to hear about that. What you folks need is a portkey to Eureka. It's a way for you all to get out of a situation like this. If we would have showed up an hour later there would be no one left in this town. Do you have a good strong rope about twenty foot long?" Harry asked.

"I got one. I have a few in the mine." A bigger younger man said.

"Go get it and I'll turn it into an emergency portkey to the front gate of Eureka." Harry said and the young man ran off.

"Again we can't thank you enough the portkey spell is extremely hard to cast and I know this is a heavy feat of magic." Rot said looking at Harry with wide eyes.

"It's not that hard for me. I'm kind of a powerhouse when it comes to this stuff I don't have much in the way of spell knowledge but I can do this.

Well I am extremely grateful to you for your help. I can't believe you two got those huge spiders so fast." Roy said looking at the big dead spiders.

"Does this happen often?" Harry asked looking at the town's people. They were all well worn and haggard looking. Sad broken eyes, bad teeth, worn out faces. They looked frail with hunger and overworking to just scrape by.

"Once or twice a month we get attacked by spiders. But they usually come one at a time. The wards can hold one of them at bay long enough for us to kill it before it eats one of us. The wards and walls might not look it but they can hold back a lot. We just got overwhelmed this time." Roy said.

"No doubt your walls can hold back a lot, but you could really use an upgrade. I'm no expert, but my sister is. I'll talk to her about it. She might be able to set up another set of wards to form an inner ward line as a fall back point. Do you want us to remove the dead spiders or is there any value in their dead bodies? Venom? Teeth? Silk? Something you can get out of this?" Harry asked.

"No. the venom is useless, they don't have silk, and we can't eat um. Hell we can't even burn them for heat because the smell is too bad. They just take up space." Roy said.

"We'll cart them away from your town." Harry said shrinking the four dead spiders down to the size of garbage can lids and banishing them into the desert as the young man came running back with a thick long rope. Harry turned it into a portkey and handed it to Roy.

"The next time something like this happens and you get overwhelmed fall back to the town hall, gather your people together, have them take a hold of the rope, and say 'Emergency Portkey to Eureka.' until then keep that rope safe and don't say that activation phrase while holding the rope. Was there anything else you needed? Anything we can help you with?" Harry asked.

"We can't ask you for anything else, we've already taken up too much of your time marshal." Roy said.

"Not at all, we're wizards, we've got plenty of time on our hands and we want to help. Hell one would even say it's our job to help folks seeing as we're marshals and all." Harry said with a charming smile full of white teeth.

"Well if you're sure, we could use some help. We sent a shipment of silver ore to Eureka a few days ago with Jimmy, he handles the deliveries for us, he hasn't gotten back yet. He had a list of supplies the town desperately needed. That was all the silver ore we could get out of the mine over the last two months and we need those supplies." Roy said looking worried.

"When we get back to town we'll look for Jimmy and make sure the supplies get back to you folks. I'll also talk to my sister about adding some more wards to your town like I said. Do you folks need any emergency supplies now? We could fly back to Eureka and get you what you needed now?" Harry said.

"We're doing okay for now. We have food stores and water from the well. I must say you're a lot more helpful than the last marshal." Roy said looking shocked.

"All in a day's work Mayor. If you need anything at all don't hesitate to telegraph the marshal's office and we'll come running." Harry said with a charming smile and a tip of his hat as he hopped on his broom and they flew off.

"He gave us a fetch quest!" Neville said with a big grin.

"I know! This is so much fun, now let's keep following the road until we get to Ely. Once we get there we can use the point me spell to find this gang." Harry said scanning the road with his eyes.

They followed the road for 45 minutes flying at a good pace. They spotted five more undead and took care of them. Again they only stopped to loot and burn the bodies. They followed the road for a few more miles until they got to the town of Ely.

Ely was a middle ground between Eureka and Hamilton in terms of how well off they were. The town was bigger than Hamilton in terms of size. It was butted up to a mountain with a mine and they had better outer walls made of heavy wood. They also had better wards. But they were nowhere near as well off as Eureka. The town had about 800 residents and most of them worked for the Harris mining company. In fact the mining company owned the, stores, the bars, the casino, and the local law. They didn't have a town marshal. Like most of the smaller towns they relied on the bigger town, Eureka in this case, to patrol the roads and take care of threats outside the town walls.

Harry walked into a few shops and checked the prices of goods to make sure the Harris company wasn't screwing its workforce over and he was pleasantly surprised that all Harris company employees got a good discount on all goods and services in the town. The town made up the difference by overcharging people passing through the town. For example the same shirt he was wearing now he paid $2 in Eureka, in Ely if you worked for the company the same shirt cost $1.25, if you didn't have the company discount the shirt was $2.75. A shot at the bar in Eureka was $.50, with discount it was $.25, without discount it was $.75 in Ely. And the miners made a good wage too. $5 a day. That was a dollar more than the WIlliamson company paid and they didn't provide discounts for things in Eureka.

Then again the the mine in Ely was a heavy gold and silver mine producing a good amount of gold and silver for every ounce of other metal that came out of the mine. They also had better smelting equipment and refining facilities that produced higher standard gold and silver then the WIlliamson company had. They also were closer to Salt Lake and the cost of gold and silver transport to the bigger city was easier and cheaper.

After checking out the town they checked in with the local law. The town sheriff was an old fat man named Steven Morgan. Steven was happy to see them and confirmed the location of the gang hideout north of the city. He introduced them to his five deputies that helped him run the town and provide security for it's residents.

After that they headed north following the road with Harry's wand pointing the way. The range of a point me spell was 50ish miles and at that distance the wand gave a general direction. So they headed north up the road with the wand pointing the way. When the wand pointed more sharply left they got off the road and followed the wand to a revin between two big rock formations a mile off the road behind another big rock. As they flew over they saw two men standing at the entrance to a cave next to a corral of a dozen horses. They dropped back before they could be spotted and landed on one of the big rocks that made the fifty foot wide thirty foot tall ravine.

"Let's try the stealth approach and see how far we get. I count a dozen horses, that could mean there are twelve of them in their and in a tight space a gun fight is going to suck. You take the one on the left I'll take the one on the right. Knives for now and if we have to shoot them we should use our Sigs. We're not leaving any witnesses anyways." Harry said pulling out a 5 inch drop point knife with a finger grooved wood handle from his bag.

"Cute knife." Neville said with a smirk as he pulled out a 14 inch long combat knife with a heavy two inch wide blade.

"It's not the size of the blade it's how you use it. On three." Harry said holding out his hand and counting down his fingers before they both vanished and reappeared behind the two sentries.

Harry grabbed his guy from behind with his left hand over his mouth, he ran the razor sharp blade across the man's neck and a shower of blood sprayed across the ground. Harry held the man to his chest for almost a half a minute until he stopped struggling. He glanced over and saw Neville watching him. His man was on the ground by his feet and his head was a few feet away.

"If you're done cuddling we can take care of the rest of them?" Neville said.

"Savage giant." Harry said with a smirk slipping into the cave. The cave curved to the right and as it got too dark to see the cave hooked left and there was a lantern on the wall, Harry checked the tunnel. It was clear but he saw it widened out up ahead and there was more light and talking. He was about to turn to tell Neville when a man walked down the hall heading towards them. Harry held up his hand and waited until the guy was about to turn the corner before he grabbed him by the arm and spun him around into Neville who took his head clean off with one swing of his heavy big knife.

"How many more are down there do you think?" Neville asked.

"I could go check under my cloak. Maybe even shoot them all before they know I'm there? Or we can just go in guns blazing? The room up ahead looks wider." Harry said with a shrug.

"So slow and boring or loud and fun?" Neville asked with a grin.

"That's what I thought. Old guns or new guns?" Harry asked holding up his revolver.

"Shiny." Neville said drawing his two guns with a smile.

"Blaze of glory it is. Big damn hero like." Harry said pulling his two guns. He walked down the hall with Neville close behind him.

He peeked in and saw six more guys sitting around the room drinking and laughing. He could see strong boxes in the corner. He held up six fingers and pointed left. Neville nodded. He smirked before rolling around the wall into the cave. The first gunshot echoed off the walls of the cave silencing everyone, but by the time they figured out was happening Harry and Neville put two rounds in each man's chest. Harry cleared the black powder smoke with a wave of his hand and they saw the dead bodies. Neville moved to the strong boxes but Harry whipped around and put two rounds in a man's chest as he came around the corner with a gun in his hand. Harry checked the room he came out of and saw an outhouse style toilet.

"There's always one fucking guy in the shitter." Harry said waving his hand to clear the air.

"There always is. Hey Harry, do you think we can keep all this loot?" Neville asked.

"I'm not sure. How much are we talking about?" Harry asked checking to make sure the outlaws were dead by kicking them in the kidneys.

"This strong box is full of coins, and this one has mixed bills of all denominations and coins. I also see the silver certificates and more mixed bills and coins, and a trunk with gold nuggets. Not pure gold but it's gold." Neville said.

"Shrink it all and we'll take it back with us, it might be like the silver certificates." Harry said looting the bodies and turning them into gold coins.

When they packed up all the bodies Harry cast a few detection charms around the room and found nothing else. They collected their first two kills and stunned and turned the horses into coins as well. They headed back to Eureka following the roads and killing anything that could attack travelers on the road. They landed and walked into the Marshal's office just before noon. When the Marshal saw them he looked like he was about to crap himself.

"Good Heavens! You two done with the spiders already?" He asked.

"The spiders, the walking dead on the road to Ely, and the gang. What do we do with the bodies?" Harry asked holding a sack of coins.

"Those are the bodies?" He asked looking at the gold coins.

"They are. We'll drop the transfiguration to show you but they're going to be a bloody mess. Do we hand them off to you?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, go ahead and pile them in the cart out back and I'll take them to judge Hill, he'll give me the stamped wanted poster and then you can take that to the bank for payment." John said as Neville took the bag and followed his instructions.

"What about all the loot? Who gets that?" Harry asked.

"You do, anything on their bodies or in their hide out belongs to you. That's what I was telling you boys. It's the reason the pay is shit. You get first crack at wanted posters and you get to loot the bodies. There were what? Ten of them? You could have both been killed. Infact a few deputies from other towns have been killed trying to bring them down. Take the loot as a bonus. Did you find the silver certificates?" He asked.

"We did. Can we cash those in at the bank?" Harry asked.

"No, those have to be taken to the Wells Fargo in Salt Lake City. It's about 350 miles east of here but with your brooms that should be an easy trip." John said.

"Good to know. We're going to get something to eat, and head out to the mine after that." Harry said about to leave when Neville stopped him.

"Jimmy Harry, remember?" He said with a smirk.

"Jimmy? Oh Jimmy! That's right. Hey boss, the mayor of Hamilton said they sent a guy to Eureka a few days ago with a cart of silver ore and a list of supplies. Did you happen to see Jimmy?" Harry asked.

"No, I can't say that I have. A few days ago you say? You know we had a werewolf attack a few days ago and a few big spiders have been roaming the area between our two towns. Not to mention the goblins you two killed last night. You might want to check with the red saloon a few doors down. If he made it then that's where he stays in town. If he's not there the best thing you can do is look for his renames between here and Hamilton." John said.

"We'll do that, thanks boss." Harry said as they walked out of the office. They stopped off at the saloon.

"Marshal, marshal. What can I get you?" The bartender said with a grin.

"Hay Sam, nothing for us, we're here on a case actually. We were hoping you could help us. Hamilton sent Jimmy out a few days ago with Silver ore and a list of supplies. The marshal said that if he did make it to town he likes to stay here. Have you seen Jimmy?" Harry asked putting a small cigar in his mouth and lighting it with a match.

"No, I'm sorry to say I haven't seen Jimmy in over a month." Sam said looking sad. He knew what that meant.

"Is there anywhere else he would stay if he came to town?" Harry asked.

"No, he stays here because he's sweet on Kitty up there. He comes right here as soon as he gets into town." San said wiping his hands on a rag.

"Shit, I really don't feel like having to give Hamilton more bad news." Harry said.

"They can take it, Jimmy was a bit of a thrill seeker. He volunteered for the run because he liked the excitement." Sam said.

"Well, can you keep this quiet for now Sam? We're going to have to search for his body later and I don't want anyone to go out looking for the silver and end up dead." Harry said.

"Will do marshal, you'll tell me when you do find him so I can tell Kitty, she was sweet on him too." Sam said.

"As soon as we find the cart you can tell her. I just want to take the temptation away." Harry said puffing his cigar.

"I understand Marshal." Sam said nodding.

"Good man, for your time." Harry said leaving a $5 coin on the bar as they walked away.

They walked back to the cube at sedated pace. As they walked through the town people tipped their hats to them and said things like 'morning marshals' and people came out to greet them and shake their hand. They stopped off at the horse corral and sold the 12 horses for $50 each. By the time they got to the cube Harry finished his cigar and hushed it out. They walked into the cube and hung up their long coats by the front door. They saw the girls hard at work making a dozen magical lanterns. They looked up when they came in and both of them smiled when they saw the silver stars on their vests.

"Two days in the past and you're both lawmen again." Hermione said.

"Rich lawmen. This bounty hunter thing is a good job. Look at all the loot we got from half a day's work." Harry said opening the trunk with the old guns and added the new ones they just got today. "We need to see how much we can get for most of this junk. We also got all this." Harry said dumping the bag of coins and loose bills they found on dead bodies along with the cash from the horse deal on the table as Neville expanded the four metal crates they found.

"Where the hell did you guys get all that?" Hermione asked.

"We killed a gang of outlaws hitting Wells Fargo stagecoaches. This was the spoils of their ill gotten gains. Now it's ours. I need you to count it and keep track of it. We have a box of silver dollars and two boxes of loose bills and coins. I can melt those gold nuggets into pure bars and those silver certificates have to go to the bank in Salt Lake City. I'm going to cook lunch and then we have to head out again." Harry said taking off his suit jacket and hat as he headed into the kitchen. Neville kissed his wife and sat down with a big grin on his face.

"You boys have fun today?" Hermione asked sorting out the coins and loose bills in the bag first.

"We did. It was great Mia. It was like a movie, we were the good guys coming to save the day. The brooms kind of killed the image but it's the best way to get to places. We need those horses if we want to ride around a bigger city like Salt Lake." Neville said taking off his hat and reloading his gun. When he was done he started helping the girls count the loot.

When Harry came in with the plates of chicken over rice with a cream sauce and a side of broccoli and carrots a half hour later they had most of it counted and Hermione was adding it up as they separated it.

"So what's the damage?" Harry asked.

"You have $16,793 in loose bills, $23,245 in coins and that box over there has $10,000 in silver dollar coins. All together you two made $50,038. Not bad." She said laughing.

"Also we made $1,000 from the warrants on the men we killed and that box has at least 50 pounds of pure gold when we strip out the impurities that's another $16,000 right there. We're racking up." Harry said.

After lunch they pulled on their coats and hats and headed to the office to check in with John.

"We're back from lunch boss, anything going on that we need to know about?" Harry asked.

"No and you boys don't have to keep checking in with me. You two are doing such a good job you're putting every other deputy I ever had to shame. Relax you two, you got the jobs, you don't have to be this fast everyday." John said laughing.

"Sorry boss, we used to be soldiers, and then we worked in a violent action filled job after that." Harry said.

"Well relax into it. There will be times where you'll be rushed out of bed to fight off some horror trying to breach the front gates. So take your time boys. Don't wear yourselves out." He said with and old wisdom.

"We'll try to slow down. We're off to the mining company and then to the mine. We'll see you later." Harry said leading them out.

From there they headed to the Williamson mining company office in town. They met with the owner Jim WIlliamson. They were expecting a boss hog character of a man but they found a older man with thinning grey hair. Dressed in a nice but not overly ostentatious suit sitting in a nice but not ridiculous office. In fact not only was John 'just call me Jim' WIlliamson not a bad guy he was a very nice man that was just trying to keep his family business going. His dad found the mine when Eureka was just coming together 50 ish years ago and ever since then the mine had been producing less and less gold and silver and more lead, iron, and copper then was profitable. On top of that it seemed like every month they had problems with the wild life.

The mine along with the ore processing refinery was located northeast of Eureka about a mile from the back gate where the Alice Rosewood's family farm was located. In fact the access road was carved through one of the mountains that made up the valley were Eureka was nestled. But the fact that the mine was a mile away from town meant it was out of the range of the wards and open to attack by all manner of things that roamed the mountainous desert around the town and mine. They had wards up but weak ones because of the distance they had to cover and the shape of the area. Like all things magical, ward advancement happened over time with breakthroughs happening at a glacial pace. Harry would need Hermione to look at all of this. As it stood the wards sucked and that lead to infestations and attacks every few weeks.

This time the mine was overrun by goblins. Jim wasn't sure of the numbers but his 10 guards hired to look after the mine fell back to the town when a group of 30-40 goblins ambushed the mine and refinery at night a week ago killing 6 of the men. With Eureka not having a Marshal and the loss of his best men he didn't have the firepower to take back the mine. As it stood he was losing a ton of money every day the mine was closed. After having to pay out death benefits to the guards next of kin and keeping up payments to his miners to make sure they stayed in town he was going broke. He hire a few teams of mercenaries but they all failed so far. As it was his last option was calling in the Army.

They promised him they would take care of it for him and left his office. With a renewed sense of vigor now that they knew this was so urgent they mounted up and headed north of town. As they approached the mine they saw the problem right away. They saw a dozen goblins camped out around a fire in front of the mine. They made quick work of them from the air and scanned the area to make sure there were no more goblins out of the mine before landing. Harry looted a few blades off of goblins and an old winchester rifle. He turned the goblins into gold coins and put them in a sack before they reloaded their rifles and put them away. They pulled out their MP5Ks and head lamps. These guns, unlike the gun he used before had a silencing charm and 300 round magazines. They turned on the headlamps and headed into the mine.

Almost immediately they ran into a pair of goblins. They cleared them out with two head shots and kept walking. They passed up silver ore, junk blades and guns as they headed deeper into the mine. The smell was horrible, the goblins turned the mine shaft into a home over the last week and their idea of home was a sewer. There was shit, literally shit all over the walls and floor and they ignored all of it as they made their way to the bottom of the mine. As they went they dropped goblins by the twos and threes as they fan into them.

After a few minutes Harry knew this was going to be a long drawn out process. One or two shots of 9mm was enough to drop these goblins and the bright light from the headlamps stunned and blinded them giving Harry and neville the chance to get the drop on them. It was slow going though. It only worked if they got all the goblins as they saw them so they couldn't alert the rest of their friends.

It took almost an hour to find the bottom of the mine. They found a big pile of silver ore with a fat goblin laying on it. The pile was being graded by ten goblins. They didn't even play around when they got there. They went full auto and sprayed the goblins with hot lead. They scanned the room and made sure that was it before they went about the process of collecting the gobins, coins, blades, guns, spent brass shell casings, and the loose ore lying around the mine. They made the trip back up to the surface turning the goblins into coins as they went. They weren't even sure how many goblins they killed until they counted the coins when they got out of the mine.

96 goblins. Harry kind of felt bad about killing them but they weren't the goblins he knew. These were little feral beasts that killed and ate humans. They made it back to the mining office by four. Jim was so happy he tried to pay them more than what he offered but they kept the ore they collected instead. Jim was all too happy to let them keep it. They saved his family legacy.

They collected their $2,980 and headed back to the cube. They dumped the 12 revolvers and 4 rifles into the trunk along with the 31 blades. Harry dumped the big box of silver, iron and copper ore into the gold ore. Harry cast a cleaning charm on the coins they found before handing them off to his sister. They loaded up on more ammo before they headed back out.

They installed two magical lanterns on the tops of the guard towers and they cast light out over the road and the surrounding area for miles. It was getting dark but the guys headed out on brooms looking for the cart from Hamilton. They figured it was easier to look for the cart then Jimmy. They were right. They frond the cart broken and tipped over a few miles from town. There was no horse or Jimmy to be seen but there was blood everywhere so it was easy to see what happened here. Harry fixed the broken cart, shrank it and put it in his bag. He summoned all the ore into a trunk and put it in his pocket as Neville scanned the area with his rifle out. They mounted their brooms and tried to find his body but he was gone. Not even a point me spell turned up anything meaning he was in so many pieces that the spell couldn't find a piece big enough to be Jimmy, or he was more than fifty miles away, either way Jimmy was gone. They headed back to town as the last bit of daylight faded and it got pitch black. They saw the lights as they approached the town and they landed just inside the gates and waved to John.

"We found the cart but no Jimmy. Jimmy's gone. You want us to take a turn on the wall?" Harry asked lighting a small cigar.

"No, you boys did more than enough for a whole week. You guys better call it a night." John said.

"Right boss, see you in the morning." Harry said as they walked away. Neville headed back to the cube and Harry walked to the saloon. He went inside and nodded to Sam and Sam nodded back to him with a sad look on his face.

"He didn't make it?" Sam said more than asked.

"We found the cart, the ore and blood, lots and lots of blood. Not even magic could find him. Jimmy's gone." Harry said puffing his cigar.

"Well shit." Sam said looking at Kitty.

"I don't envy you. Giving a death notice is the worst. You want me to do it?" Harry asked.

"No, I'll do it." Sam said wiping his clean hands on the towel.

"Buy her a bottle of something good to help her sleep on me." Harry said setting a $20 coin on the bar.

"I'll do that. Thanks Marshal." Sam said looking at the gold coin.

"Good luck." Harry said before walking out.

He walked into the cube and hung up his coat and hat. That night Harry cooked and they had a nice dinner and Harry watched Tombstone on the big tv before passing out on the couch. Neville woke him up when the movie was over and Harry dragged his ass to bed where he passed out with a contented sigh and smile. He might be stuck in a bizzaro past but he was loving every second of it.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day the boys got dressed with smiles on their faces and a spring in their step. They put on their stars, their guns, their coats, and hats and headed into the office looking for work and excitement but John just laughed and shrugged.

"You two handled everything I had for the last week in one day. When I get something or I need you for something I'll call you. You're free to sit in here and wait for work to come in. or you can patrol the roads looking for danger. I have your warrant checks from the judge." John said handing them the three checks.

"If you get anything have a runner come and find us. We'll work on something better. For now we have a few things to do." Harry said before they walked out.

"Now what are we going to do today?" Neville asked.

"We have a few things to do at the bank. Let's smelt our gold and silver and Hamilton's silver. We'll take it to the bank, along with that box of silver dollars. Then we'll head back to Hamilton and get a new list form them or escort someone back here. Either way Hamilton is on it's last dying leg and they need help. We also have to make a run up to Salt Lake City." Harry said leading them back to the cube.

"You also wanted to sell those guns to Smith. Why don't we split up today. You handle all of this and I'll make the flight to Salt Lake City." Neville said.

"So I'm stuck with all the jobs here in town and you get to go to the big city?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Seems fare, you're better at talking to folks. They like you. I come off as big and scary." Neville said.

"Well Andy always said you can't argue with the facts or a crazy person and in this case she was right on both fronts." Harry said ducking into the cube to dodge his backhand.

"Smart ass." He said following him in.

"Wait until I smelt this gold and take it with you. Maybe you can get more than $20 an ounce in a bigger city." Harry said grabbing their box of mixed ore and the box of silver ore for Hamilton and going to the living room.

"What spells are you going to use to do this? I don't know anything that can do this sort of thing." Neville said.

"I know a pair of goblin refining spells. One spell holds whatever you want to melt in the air and melts it down to a liquid form. The other spell separates it and forms anything you want. I've never done this with metal before." Harry said dumping the box of mixed ore out on the floor.

"What did you use it for?" Neville asked.

"Disappearing bodies. The spells melted a human body down to liquid carbon and I formed a shitty diamond with the carbon and let the gasses out. It smelled funny but it worked." Harry said sitting down and pulling out his wand.

"And you called me crazy." Neville said laughing.

"Look you can stay in the room but I need to fully concentrate on this." Harry said closing his eyes and raising his wand. The ore floated up and melted into a glowing ball of molten metal. He waved at the floor and the ball separated and formed little bars that floated to the ground and cooled until they were solid when they hit the floor. There was a stack of 8 smaller gold bars, 15 silver bars and a silver slug, 12 lead bars and a bigger slug, 2 copper bars and a slug, 3 iron bars, a tin bar, and sand.

"Wow, I can't believe that worked this good." Neville said looking at a gold bar.

"I made 100 ounce bars to make it easier to sell at different place to see where you can get the best price. We had 800 ounces of gold on the nose. That's 50 pounds. And we had 1,524 ounces of silver." Harry said handing him the gold and silver bars to put in his bag.

"Well, then I'm off. I'll set up a few portkeys when I get there." Neville said.

"Stay loose." Harry said as he dumped out the silver ore. He did the spell again and this time he got 18 silver bars and a 50 ounce smaller bar, he also got more sand, copper, lead, tin, and iron. He banished the sand into a box and put the silver bars in his bag. He tossed the copper and iron bars into his bag as well. He walked back into the dining room to see the girls back at the table working.

"Harry, what are you doing back already?" Hermione asked.

"We did all the work yesterday. The marshal didn't have anything for us so we're going to run some errands today. Neville is heading to Salt Lake to cash in the silver certificates and see if we can get a better price for gold a silver in the big city. I'm going to stay local in case I'm needed. I also want to see if I can help Hamilton some more. I feel bad for this town. They're the living embodiment of the small kid that gets picked on in grade school." Harry said taking the trunk that had the silver in it and filling it with the two dozen shittyer guns from the box as well as the more beat up gun belts. He added all the rusty blades and shrank it. He also took the box with $10,000 in silver dollars.

"Sounds like you found a pet project. We're close to cracking the horse gargoyle. We should have a few of them ready by the end of the day." She said.

"Good luck with that. Neville should be back later. I should be back later too. Can I take a pair of these lanterns or were you using them for something?" Harry asked pointing to the 10 lanterns.

"No we made those for you guys. I figured you can put them around the town." Hermione said.

"Good, I'm going to set up a pair of them in Hamilton." Harry said shrinking two of them and adding them to his bag before walking out.

He headed to the bank first. The going rate for silver was $5 an ounce. But again the purity of the bars Harry had were worth almost twice as much. He talked Bobby up to $9 an ounce. It came to $16,650 for the stack of bar from Hamilton. They handed him a big stack of bills and Harry put a band around them and put them in his coat pocket. Next he cashed the three checks and took the thousand dollars in $50 gold coins. He also cashed in the $10,000 in silver dollars for bigger coins. The box went from almost overflowing to a third of the way full. When he left the bank they closed up shop for the day because they were out of money. He stopped off at Smith's shop next.

"Harry, what can I do for you today?" He asked standing to greet him with a smile.

"The Marshal said you buy guns and I have a bunch of shitty guns." Harry said opening the trunk.

"You do have a bunch of shitty guns. But it's nothing a good reparo charm can't fix. They also make for good project guns. Let's see what we got here." Smith said taking the guns out of the trunk and setting them on his counter. There were a dozen cap and ball guns, nine colt single actions that were badly damaged, and three Scofields. There were four winchester rifles and a rusty Henry repeater.

"So what can I get for the lot?" Harry asked.

"I can do $3 a piece for the cap and ball colts and remingtons, $7 for the single actions, and $9 for the scofields. I'll give you $8 a piece for the rifles. The ten gun belts and the blades you can sell to the junk shop at the end of the street. You won't get much for them. I'd advise you cast the repairo charms on them before you take them into the shop. It's won't fix everything but they will look better." Smith said.

"Good call." Harry said hitting the blades with a reparo charm as Smith added it all up on a piece of paper. It fixed most of the blades but they still looked old and beat up.

"That comes to $166 dollars." Smith said.

"Do you have any .45 colt in smokeless like the .45-70 rounds?" Harry asked.

"I do but not much, I can make more, I just have to mix up the powder and fill the cartridges. how much were you looking to buy?" Smith asked.

"I'll take 20 more boxes of the .45-70, 30 boxes of the colt .45 for now, I'll take an order like that every month if things keep going like this. Also do you have another set of colts like the pair you sold me?" Harry asked.

"All shiny and engraved? No. But I can work on a set. It will take about a week to make a set like that." He said

"What if I don't want the gold engravings? Can you make me a set of colts in nickel with the ivory grips, and the enchantments like I got. How long with that take?" Harry asked.

"Three, maybe four days." Smith said.

"Deal, also start making a another set of schofields for my brother in .45lc." Harry said.

"I can start making them today. Each set is going to run you a $100. I think I have a few boxes of smokeless I can give you now." Smith said pulling out an ammo crate and stacking five boxes of 45-70, and ten boxes of colt 45 on the counter

"So what's the difference?" Harry asked.

"$134." Smith said doing the math.

"Let me know when my guns and the ammo are done." Harry said handing over the coins.

He stopped off at the junk shop and sold the 14 swords, 31 knives, and 10 gun belts for $75 before he flew to Hamilton. He was greeted like a hero and even though Harry usually hated people fawning over him he felt proud when they called him marshal. He walked into the Mayor's office and Roy's face fell as soon as he saw him.

"Jimmy didn't make it did he?" Roy asked.

"No, he's gone, all we found was blood and a tipped over cart. I have the cart, I repaired it and shrank it. I set it up outside your office. I also took your ore and smelted it with magic. You ended up with $16,650." Harry said setting the big stack of bank note on his desk.

"How did you get so much?" Roy asked.

"All I did was smelt it, formed it into bricks, and exchanged it at the bank." Harry said.

"This is more than twice what we get for our silver. We have to pay Williamson to smelt it for us, and the process cuts our profits in half and it's still not pure silver." He said looking excited for the first time.

"Well, the next time you have ore like that I'll smelt it for you. It took me a few minutes to do it and you lose nothing. Now, on the matter of your supplies. I didn't find the list, but if you give me a list I can get what you need, or if you prefer I can escort someone to and from Eureka." Harry said.

"Marshal, you've already gone above and beyond. We can't ask you to keep sacrificing your time to help us." Roy said.

"I don't have anything better to do and I'm independently wealthy. Now am I headed back alone or with someone?" Harry asked with a easy smile as he lit a cigar. What started out as a spaghetti western joke was turning into a habit. Thank god wizards couldn't get cancer. His six cigarette a day habit became a ten mini-cigar a day addiction.

"I'll have to ask for volunteers. We also have to borrow a few horses to pull the cart." Roy said thinking out loud.

"You know what you need? A set of reusable portkeys. You're so close to Eureka that … Why am I not just doing it?" Harry asked

Harry reached into his bag and pulled two bars of iron out, he cut a quarter off each bar and turned them into two thick credit card sized plates using the smelting charms. One said Hamilton and the other said Eureka. He waved at the two bars and each one had a town name. He picked up the Eureka set and held them in his hands. They slowly started to glow until they flashed. He did the same with the other set. He handed the two cards to the Mayor along with the Hamilton bar.

"There, now keep this bar on your desk and I'll put this bar in the Marshal's office. When you want to go to Eureka just hold the Eureka card in your hand and say 'Eureka please' and you'll land in the marshal's office. It's the same with coming home. Also when you get to Eureka there will be a set of leather carpet bags waiting for you in the Marshal's office with an expansion charm and a featherweight charm on it so you can load up on supplies and still portkey back." Harry said.

"Harry we can never repay the debt we owe you." Roy said standing up and shaking his hand.

"Your friendship and the safety of this town is reward enough for me. And those portkeys are not just for supply runs. If you need help send for me. The same for things like doctors and things like that. You folks are all alone out here, with a wood wall and old wards to protect you. So if things go south on you folks send for help. That reminds me. I have two magical lanterns. I'm going to install them on the top of your guard towers to light up the road." Harry said.

"We will use the portkeys. You can count on it Marshal." Roy said walking him out.

"Call me Harry. Have a good day and again, sorry about Jimmy." Harry said pulling out his broom and flying to the guard towers. He attached the lanterns before flying off.

The trip back to Eureka only too three minutes if he took a direct path. He stopped off in the junk shop again and took the four leather carpet bags they had for $5. They were a miss matched set but they ranged from a small 10 inch doctor's bag all the way up to a 24 inch wide 15 inch tall bag. Harry repared them back to well worn but mostly new and cast the expansion and featherweight charms on the bags making the doctor's bag the size of a steamer trunk and the large bag big enough to sleep in. Harry put the four bags in the office along with the bar and told John about all of it. The old Marshal agreed with everything Harry was saying.

"That was a good call son. You just saved that town's life. Say You up for some work today?" He asked.

"I always am boss. What can I do for you?" Harry asked.

"Well your search for Jimmy reminded me that we haven't had a mail delivery in a week, now that's nothing new. But with what happened to Jimmy?" John said shrugging.

"I see your point. Where does the mail come from?" Harry asked.

"I comes from Salt Lake City. Now the fancy well funded marshal's office in the city takes care of the roads to the Nevada border, but the road leading to Ely and from Ely to here is our job and with the loss of my last deputy we haven't been cleaning those roads I know you just came from Hamilton but could you check the roads leading to the border town of West Wendover. It's a small border town that stays afloat be being a rest stop on the way out to Nevada. I need you to recheck the road to Ely and then check the road leading to West Wendover. The road is long. 120 something miles long. But it needs to be done." John said.

"Will do boss, I'll head out there right after lunch if you don't mind." Harry said.

"No hurry really, if the mail's been late for a week, a few hours won't make a difference." John said.

Harry headed back to the cube and found the girls working on two small eight inch toy horses made of a black metal. They were locked in small vices and they were carving small runes on the horses with tiny gold tools and working through magnifying glasses on tripods made of wood and brass. Harry made lunch of steak sandwiches and fresh cut steak fries for everyone. When he was done he took two of the less beat up leather gun belts out of the trunk and tried something hoping it would work. He set the two gun belts on the table and cast the smelting charm at them. They lifted up and melted together. He waved at the table and a double gun over the shoulder rig was sitting on the table.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked.

"Goblin magic. It's the set of charms I used to smelt the gold and silver ore and turn it into bars." Harry said pulling on the rig that consisted of two holsters suspended over the shoulders by straps with a belt that went around his belly and back and held the rig in place just under his pecks. It was an idea he got from Doc Holliday in Tombstone.

"And it works for anything?" She asked.

"Apparently. We'll test it out later when I get back. I have to patrol the roads up to Utah." He said as he took out the colt he cleaned the day before and a second colt single action from the trunk. He cast the repair charm on it and cleaned it up with a cleaning charm.

"Yes we will, those two charms might be the key to solving a lot of problems we're having." Hermione said.

"Like I said we have to test it out. They are not easy to cast and they take a lot of power to work." He said as he loaded all four of his guns with the smokeless powder rounds and loaded his gun belt with the 50 smokeless rounds. He tossed another box of 50 rounds in his bag and put the four guns in the four holsters. He pulled on his suit jacket and long leather coat.

"Well good luck out there, and we'll see you tonight. We should have these horses done by then." She said.

"Good luck with that." He said adjusting his hat on his head before he headed out.

Harry tracked down the road but unlike the day before were they stuck close to the road Harry headed a thousand feet up and scanned for threats on both sides of the road for miles. He also scanned for the mail. If he spotted something he would fly over and shoot it. By the time he got the to border town he added another 27 undead to his kill count, four more huge spiders, and a pack of six huge wolves the size of horses. As he got closer to the town he saw something off the road a few miles and as he got closer he felt the urge to chrap himself.

It was a rattlesnake. A 26 foot long 4 foot wide rattlesnake with a head full of teeth and two 4 foot long fangs. Harry hovered a hundred foot away and pulled out his rifle. He took steady aim and blasted the huge snake in the top of the head. It reared back and hissed as it's rattle started going. It sounded like a truck full of maracas all shaking at once. Harry popped it nine more times emptying the rifle and it still was hissing and snapping at him. Harry put away his winchester and pulled out his .300 rifle and shot it five more times in the head to finally put it down. Even when it was dead it twitched, jerked, and the rattle was still going. Harry shot it three more times in the head to make sure it was dead before he floated down closer. He transfigured it into a fire hose and packed it in a trunk before he put it in his bag. He put away his rifle and continued searching for the mail. But this time when he cast the spell the wand pointed towards the road. He followed it to a double set of heavy leather saddle bags left in the dirt by the side of the road. He checked the bags and found letters addressed to Ely, Hamilton, and Eureka. He shrank it down and put it away as he continued to West Wendover. When he got to the small border town of about a thousand people he dropped a few portkeys in the town, introduced himself to the town marshal, and flew back to Eureka on a direct route. He killed another spider and a six foot coyote by the time he made it back to the town at three.

He walked into the marshal's office and saw John getting ready to take his five hour shift at the front gate.

"Did you find the mail?" John asked.

"I did, I did not find the mail carrier but I did find the mail close to a 26 foot long rattlesnake that took more than a dozen head shots to bring down." Harry said dropping into a chair next to John's desk.

"You killed a King Diamondback!?" John said looking shocked.

"Is that what they're called?" Harry asked with a shrug.

"Harry, no one man kills a King Diamondback. It takes teams of hunters to kill one. Not even wizards kill them without help. Their skin is magic resistant like a dragon and an inch thick. How the hell did you kill one?" John asked.

"I flew above it and blasted it with my rifle in the head until it died. It hissed and spit venom at me the whole time but I was far away from him. I turned him into a fire hose and keep him. Is there anything good in them you know besides the venom, and skin?" Harry asked.

"Yes, the meat is good. And the teeth make good weapons. Also the rattle beads are magical. You should talk to Alice." John said.

"I'll do that. I need to get this mail delivered. I'm going to leave the Hamilton mail in here for now and they can pick it up with the portkey." Harry said leaving a pack of mail bound together with twine on John's desk as he got up and headed out.

He left the mail with the post office. He stopped of at Alice's shop and she pointed him to the farm run by her daughter in law. Harry dropped the big snake off along with the 6 wolves and the coyote to be processed. He flew to Ely and dropped off the mail. He also gave them two lanterns. He flew back just as the sun was going down. It was dark by the time he got back to the cube at four. He flew up a few hundred feet and the saw the lantern light from Hamilton and Ely in the distance. He landed and called it quits for the night. He saw Neville sitting at the table when he came in.

"How was your day?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Good, the trip to Salt Lake City was easy. It took about two hours. The city itself is built like the great walled cities of europe. I checked in with the local marshals, I traded in the $100,000 in silver certificates for $10,000. I managed to find a bank that would give me $24 an ounce for gold and $12 and ounce for silver. I traded in some of it for less than that at other places trying to find the best price but I still ended up with $17,670 for the gold and $15,450 for the silver. I found a few magic shops and set up portkeys around the city. Really I spent the day walking around the city looking in shops. What about you?" Neville asked.

"Nothing much, I made this with that smelting and forming charm." Harry said showing off the gun rig.

"Nice, I want one." Neville said.

"I'll make you one later. I also helped Hamilton by making them a reusable portkey to the marshal's office. Let's see what else did I do? Oh I know I killed a 26 foot long 4 foot wide Diamondback rattlesnake that ate the mail man." Harry said dropping the loot he took of the undead into the trunk.

"Say what?" Neville asked.

"John sent me to scan the roads to West Wendam on the border with Utah and find out what happened to the mail. I tracked the road and killed a bunch of nasty things like huge wolves and spiders. Not to mention all the undead I found. But as I got closer to the town I saw the big fucking snake. It took all ten shots from the winchester and five more .300 win mag rounds to go down. Alice's daughter in law is carving up the King Diamondback as we speak. John said no one has ever killed one by themselves." Harry said with a grin.

"That's crazy! So was it harder or easier to kill then the basilisk?" Neville asked.

"Easier. This one didn't even get close. I stayed in the air and shot it. It would have been nice to talk to it to confirm he ate the mail man but I haven't been able to do that in almost twenty years. You know I miss that, being able to talk to snakes. Snakes, oddly enough make for good conversation." Harry said.

"So you killed a great big snake, what are you going to do with it?" Hermione asked.

"Well I was thinking, King Snake stew sounds interesting. A set of King Snake fang scimitars sounds cool as does a few snake teeth knives, and a snakeskin vest and duster sounds downright fashionable. Aside from that and the venom, the rest we'll sell or give away. I know I want a wolf fur lined leather coat." Harry said.

"You know there are easy tailoring charms that you can use to make whatever you want and it will work better than the charms you used earlier." Abby said.

"Really?" Harry asked looking at the girl.

"Yes, and I could tan the hides you got today with an old native American spell. The furs work with the same set of spells too. You end up with soft fur on one side and supple soft leather on the other side. I learned the spell in Salem. I make most of my leather goods and clothing with these spells." Abby said.

"Awesome. Let me go get the hides and we can work on that. Although I don't know how far along Kate is with her work it's only been an hour." Harry said.

"I could help with that too. I was an avid hunter growing up in Texas and I was raised on a cattle ranch so I know how to skin and butcher almost anything." Abby said.

"Really? Are there any other skills you have? We all know each other here but we could really use your full resume if you don't mind." Harry asked.

"Not at all. Like I said I grew up in Texas, I shot junior three gun as a kid, I was state champion in 2003, 04, and 05. After that I focused more on academics. As my file most likely says I spent a lot of time in Massachusetts at Salem and Harvard. It's been a few years since I've carried and I didn't have a gun on me in the field. If I did there would have been one dead Indian and we'd still be in our timeline." Abby said looking frustrated and emotional.

"Hey, Abs, you have to relax. Have you been holding that in over the last few days?" Harry asked coming around the table and crouching down next to her.

"Yes. It's my fault we're stuck here. I was studying the glowing red rock and I saw him approach me from the corner of my eye. He blitzed me and grabbed the wand out of my hand. I was on the ground and he was standing over me and I couldn't do anything about it. The next thing I know I'm being woken up by Hermione. If I was carrying I would have ended him and called for backup." She said crying.

"Abby, it's not your fault. It's our fault for not just shooting him as soon as we came in. It's the department's fault for sending you in without backup and without a gun to begin with. And it's the local auror's fault for not staying with you. You are a young researcher, on your first real mission, and now you're on a different mission altogether. You're stuck with us in a bizzaro past and we have to stick together. If you feel responsible for getting us here then I have to thank you. I killed people to save the world. That was my job. But the work I did in the last two days has made me feel more important and more useful than the last two years of Operative work I did. So thank you. I needed a change and I didn't know it. Neville what about you? What's more fun, assassinations from the shadows, or being a big god damn hero?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"You kidding? Look at the way I'm dressed. I'm loving this. I'm thinking we invent the car and the motorcycle Harry. What do you say?" Neville asked.

"Sounds like fun. Mia, how about you? What's more fun? Be honest. Think about all the shit you can invent. You're not stepping on anyone's toes either. Half the people in this country died when the rift opened." Harry said.

"I have to admit this world has the potential to be better than the one we came from. That being said I miss electricity." Hermione said with a smirk.

"Then invent it egghead." Harry said smirking.

"Blow it out your ass Harry. I'll do it when I'm good and ready. For now I have to make sure you two fools don't get yourselves killed playing big damn heros." She shot back laughing.

"I haven't heard that laugh in a while. It sounds good. Now get back to work nerd." Harry said earning him a shocking spell to the butt which made him jump.

"You totally deserved that." Abby said with a smile and wet eyes.

"I did, but we have to stay loose guys. We're future people with future weapons and knowledge. Relax. We've got a hundred years to live and at some point we'll get a philosopher's stone and add even more time to our lives. I want to see 2016 but not our 2016. A better time. Now get off your ass and quit your crying. We need to go skin a snake so I can have a bad ass snakeskin coat that's bulletproof." Harry said with a smirk.

"Well in that case let's go fearless leader." Abby said wiping her eyes as she laughed.

"How comes he gets to be the leader?" Neville asked.

"I give the best motivational speeches." Harry said without missing a beat as he handed Abby out of her chair. "And you little lady, we need to get you a proper gun. Both of you. The cloverleaf guns were for purse carry. You both need proper double gun belts and real six shooters with enchantments and engravings. The whole nine yards." Harry said helping her with her coat.

"I would like that." She said as Harry pulled on his coat.

"We need to find a shooting range so you two can test out a wide range of guns to find what you like." Harry said as they walked out. Hermione and Neville looked at each other from across the table and laughed.

Harry was about to lead them to the farm at the edge of town when he turned around and headed back into the cube, he came back a minute later with a gun belt and a colt single action and handed it to her.

"We're headed outside the gate but not outside the wards of the town. In fact the ranch is more protected then the town but still, better safe than sorry. Also I grabbed a few other guns and I figured we could shoot things to see what you like and head to Smith's in the morning to see if he has something nice on hand or if he can make you something." Harry said as she put the belt around her waist and shrank it to fit her. She pulled the colt and checked to make sure it was loaded before holstering it.

"I feel better already. I need to get one of those undercover rigs and a real gun too. Something I can keep on me all the time. I'm never getting caught out again. I'm also going to spend time practising. It's been almost six years since I fired a gun and even longer since I shot a handgun, and I've always used a semiauto." She said following him to the back of the town and out a back gate to the farm where all of the dairy, eggs, and meat the town lived on came from.

The farm like the town was nestled between two mountains. The farm was located in the v were the two mountains met making a huge fifty foot tall rock wall that surrounded the farm on three sides and the back gate of the town made up the fourth side. The farm was comprised of a half a square mile patch of grass with four barn style buildings and a house. The magic of the farm was palpable. You could feel the wards surrounded the small patch of land.

All the lights were on and a glowing ball of light was hovering above the front yard of the house where the huge snake carcass was being worked on by a woman in her late thirties with red hair and a plain but pretty face and three farm hands. They were all covered in blood and half the snake was missing. They had three piles on the grass around the snake carcass.

One pile was a stack of 4 foot by 12 foot sheets of snake skin. Another pile was slabs of meat. The last pile was viscera and bones. Next to that pile was the head. When Abby saw the head she looked like she was going to pass out.

"Jesus Harry." She said standing next to the huge head.

"I know. Look at how thick this skin is. If I was on the ground with this thing I would have been dead." Harry said.

"Yes you would have. This is the biggest Kingsnake I've ever seen. I ran a test on the venom, you would have died from one bite. Which is what happened to these poor souls." Kate said coming over to them

"Them who?" Abby asked.

"These three people. I'm sure we'll find more." Kate said pointing out the three decomposed bodies in the pile of bloody mess.

"Oh God." Abby said looking green.

"The food chain is funny like that, you never really think about being lower on the list. Would you look at all this meat! We'll be able to feed all the local towns for a week with this much meat." Harry said walking over to the big stack of meat blocks.

"YOu're going to eat the snake meat even after you saw it ate people!?" Abby asked literally holding back lunch at this point.

"Yeah?" Harry said.

"Meat's meat, and despite how it looks Kingsnake meat taste like tender juicy white meat chicken. This is a few thousand pounds of meat. Enough to feed a lot of hungry people." Kate said.

"I guess so. I'm usually not squeamish about things like this. In fact I've had things like snake, bear, wolf, and coyote before. Hell I've even had dragon. It's just you pulled people out of it." Abby said trying to get her hunter's nerve back.

"I can solve this issue really easy. Abby you said you had dragon, was it in Texas?" Harry asked.

"I have. I got it at a place in Texas." She said.

"You're talking about Big Bob's Bar and Grill?" Harry asked smiling.

"How did you know?" Abby asked.

"I shut down Big Bob's last year, do you know why? He was selling unregulated dragon meat from dragons he was killing in Mexico. Now as you know Mexico did not have a dragon preserve. Those dragons were wild, wild dragons eat anything that moves. Anything. Including humans." Harry said.

"Oh no." She said.

"Oh yes, and I hate to break it to you, we didn't shut him down because he was selling wild dragon. We shut him down because he was leaving the dragons in tact and bringing them back to his restaurant where he didn't have a freezer big enough to hold a big beast like that and carving the meat off as he was selling it. Old, hot, smelly, long turned green, dragon meat." Harry said making her lose her lunch. Harry grabbed her hair as she wretched.

"Oh God." Abby said.

"Yeah that about sums it up. Now, what we need is some cold storage trunks. Why don't you head back and help my sister." Harry suggested.

"No, I'm good to go, I can never look at dragon again. Nor can I eat any of this I don't think. But I can help carve it up. I can also show you the spell to tan this hides." She said pulling her canteen out of her bag and washing her mouth out.

"You sure? You could test out the guns too if you wanted." Harry said.

"We will, but after we help. Work and then play time like my granddaddy used to say." She said pulling out a small knife in a leather sheath with native american bead work. She pulled out the knife and he saw a 5 inch drop point knife. When he saw the knife Harry pulled his stealth kill knife out.

"So that's what this is for? Skinning?" Harry asked showing off his knife.

"Yes, why? What do you use…. Oh, never mind." She said nodding.

"Is yours razor sharp? If it's not I have a few more of these in my bag, they're my favorite knife." Harry said pulling out a second one.

"No, this one is enchanted and I'm used to it." She said with a grin.

They went to work helping take apart the beast after making a call to the cube. Neville and Hermione showed up twenty later with four trunks. With eight of them working to carve it up and stack the meat in the trunks it took just one more hour to finish the snake, the five wolves, and the coyote. When they were done they had six big soft fur hides, and six 4x12 foot rough looking snake skin leather sheets that were soft to the touch. The tanning charm fused the scales together and flattened them out leaving them with half inch thick textured leather that had to be worked with magic because it stood up to their magical blades, bullets, rifle rounds, and spell damage. Harry handed Kate five $100 bills and she handed four of them back.

"Harry that's way too much. We agreed on $100 for the whole job and even that was too much." She said.

"Okay, how about this, $200 for the job, and another $100 to use the mountain wall on the side of your house here as a gun range?" Harry asked handing her two more bills back.

"Fine, but I'm bringing you fresh milk and eggs until I think we end up even." She said trying not to laugh.

"That's a good idea, here's another $100, throw in some bacon and I'm coming back at some point next week to buy a cow from you. In fact how much will that run me?" Harry asked pulling out more bills.

"For a whole cow? $35." She said.

"Butchered?" Harry asked.

"No, that's another $5." She said.

"Here's $50, set aside a fat cow for me and I'll come by next week when we run out of meat." Harry said handing her more money as she laughed at him.

"I will Harry. I got a big heffer that's fat and ready to go." She said.

"Good. Now if you'll excuse us our girls here need to test out some guns." Harry said walking over to the side of the house to the rock wall. He made two ten inch targets and set them up on the wall. He cast a muffling charm around the area.

"Okay, let's start with the colt single action." Harry said taking the two colts off his belt and handed them each a gun.

It took a half hour but they had their preferences. Hermione liked the colt lightning for it's smaller grips and lower recoil .38 long colt ammo it took. Abby however prefered the colt single action like Harry. But what stuck with Harry was Abby's form. When she said she shot three gun she wasn't kidding. She stood square with the target. She worked the hammer and pulled the trigger with quick and precise movements and she was dead on accurate.

"I thought you never used a revolver?" Harry asked.

"I never said never. I said I only ever had semiautos. My granddaddy had a ruger blackhawk. I shot it a few times to get used to it but I mostly used a Wilson Combat 1911 in 9mm for my 3 gun competitions. I used to compete in the classics division. A 1911 with iron sights, a pump action 20 gauge shotgun with a 6 round mag tube, and a bolt action rifle in .308 and a detachable 10 round box magazine or a Ruger mini 14 with a scope and 30 round mag. Some competitions required a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol, and a .410 double barrel shotgun. Like I said before, if I had a gun on me, any gun at all we wouldn't be here right now." Abby said quick drawing her revolver and drilling all six rounds into the target in two seconds before half cocking the gun, dropping the loading gate and ejecting the spent brass.

"Well I'll talk to Smith in the morning about getting you both a set of guns." Harry said feeling really turned on watching her shoot.

"They should test out the rifles too." Neville said handing his smaller wife his 45-70 winchester rifle.

"Good thinking. Here see how you like this." He said pulling his rifle out of the bag and handing it to her.

Abby dropped into a olympic rifle shooting stance with her back and legs stiff and her left elbow buried into her hip to balance the gun. She took a deep breath, held it in, pulled the trigger, let her body take the recoil as she let out the breath, and worked the lever action. She took a deep breath and repeated this action nine more times before she handed the gun back to him with a nod.

"I like it, it's nice and smooth and the action is crisp. The stock brass plate on the back hits the shoulder hard but with a leather pad it would be a nice gun." She said.

"I agree." Hermione said handing the rifle back to her husband and flexing her shoulder.

"So a set of colt lightnings, a set of colt single actions, and two winchester rifles in 45-70 for the ladies." Harry said collecting all the brass and leading the group back to the cube.

Harry cooked dinner as they finished working on the horses. After dinner they cleared off the table and Harry worked with Abby to learn the tailoring charms she knew. It took some trying to get it right and Harry ended up messing up a cowhide trying to make a vest. But after a few tries he got it right and he used the goblin charm to turn the lopsided leather vest back into a sheet of leather which confused and baffled the two smarter girls. As Harry got the hang of the charms he started making some really nice things.

He made a shoulder rig for Neville and an undercover rig for Abby that Hermione took and started enchanting. He made a snakeskin double breasted waistcoat that buttoned all the way up to almost his neck. The vest had brass buttons he made from the spent shell casings. He cast a color changing charm at the vest and turned it a dull black. He pulled it on and it only needed a few adjustments to fit well. The vest was stiff but he knew it would break in over time and he knew he had his vest. He copied his long rifle frock coat in snakeskin a with brass buttons and made it black. When he put the coat on over his vest he had three layers of magical leather hide over his shirt and his thin dragon his vest under his shirt.

"Hey Nev, shoot me in the chest?" Harry asked and before the girls cold say anything Neville pulled out his Scofield and shot Harry right in the center of his chest.

"Jesus! You two are going to kill each other one day playing with guns!" Hermione yelled.

"It's fine Mia, I have like an inch of magical snakeskin on over my dragon hide vest. That hurt like a bitch by the way. Good job." Harry said waving at his chest and casting a healing charm at his ribs.

"Hay Harry, can you make me a set like that?" Neville asked.

"Shure, the same or something different?" He asked as he added a cushioning charm to the vest.

"The same. I like that color, it absorbs the light." Neville said.

"Easy enough." Harry said making a copy of his vest and coat but bigger.

"Nice, thanks Harry." Neville said putting on the vest and coat.

"Once I got the hang of it I can make this work all day. And look we still have 5 whole snake skins and," Harry waved at the snakeskin scraps and they melted and turned into a smaller 3x3 foot sheet.

Harry took a small bit of leather and turned it into a sling for his riffle. The sling had 50 bullet loops for more 45-70 ammo. He made it black and made one for Neville without being asked. Hermione handed Abby the shoulder rig back after enchanting it. Harry dug through the trunk and handed her a stainless steel Wilson Combat classic 1911 in 9mm from the trunk. He found a few wilson combat 9mm magazines and handed them to her along with a ammo can full of NATO 9mm.

"There you go, and there are a few of those in there, it's like bad guys like wilson combat, Kimber, and Sig 1911's." Harry said.

"Nice, it's just like the gun I used to use." She said loading the gun and putting it in the shoulder rig cocked and locked.

"Good, now if you'll excuse me, all this magic has kicked my ass and I need to sit in front of the tv and pass out." Harry said walking out of the room.

He was asleep on the couch fifteen minutes later as Django Unchained was playing on the tv. Neville sat on the chair next to him and watched the movie. When it was over he woke him up and they hit the sack. For the second night in a row Harry slept with a smile on his face.


	5. Chapter 5

Life was good for Harry and the group. They got used to their new world over the next two weeks. Some things were easy to get used to. The fact that they could openly practice magic and not only were they not called freaks or reported to the ministry, the locals loved every bit of it. Half the time they cheered when they performed the smallest of tasks. From making a huge half barrel grill for the big town founding celebration. To the time Harry stopped a group of young men from robbing the town bank with a wandless stunner.

Harry walked in 'unarmed'. He saw the three young men and as soon as their guns were pointed at him he stunned them all with three quick spells.

"How'ed you do that?" Bobby asked as Harry bound the three kids and took their guns.

"I'm on the mage level, wandless magic comes naturally to me. And out here the air is practically swimming in magic. I can cast spells all day out here." Harry said floating the three kids out of the bank.

But for the bigger feats of magic the group did, they were treated like gods. The mine collapsed trapping dozens of miners underground. The group was called and in an hour they fixed the cave in and made the mine more structurally sound. They also healed the wounded miners, and they separated out the ore they excavated from the rocks they cleared out of the mine. The whole town was there watching them work and they were cheered on the whole time. A massive mine collapse that should have killed at least a hundred people and shut down the mine for weeks was fixed in an hour and the worse thing that happened was a few miners needed to take a few days off to finish healing.

"Well Mr. Williamson, you're mine is back in good standing and we fixed the structural supports so this won't happen again. Although, and I'm not telling you how to run your mine, but you're losing money by mining into the mountain and not strip mining the whole thing. There are huge deposits of lead, iron, and even small bits of gold in that big rock just waiting to be pulled out." Harry said.

"But we can't smelt it all out of the rocks. It's easier to just follow the silver vein and try to get all the silver out." Jim Williamson said.

"You can't but I can, in fact all of us can." Harry said casting the goblin spells at the huge pile of rubble. The pile lifted up and melted into a huge ball of glowing glass and metal. He waved at the ground and there were stacks of 100 ounce bars of silver and gold, as well as a pile of 25 pound bars of lead, iron, copper, and tin. There was also a big pile of sand.

"MY GOD!" Jim said looking at the stacks of bars.

"That took a lot out of me I must admit." Harry said swaying on his feet. Hermione made a simple wood chair and Harry dropped into it.

"You okay Harry?" Jim asked looking worried, everyone did. Harry and the group had become very important to the town in a short amount of time and the last thing they wanted was for them to get hurt.

"I'm fine, or I will be in a minute. Fixing the mine, and the refining magic took a lot. That being said, I could cast that spell on a big load of rubble like that three times a week. For that I want a tenth of the gold and silver, and half of the rest of the metal that comes out of the mine. I'll even transport it to Salt Lake City to get you the best prices for your gold and silver for free." Harry said.

"Deal. In fact take a quarter of the gold and silver and ¾ quarters of the other metal, clean pure silver and gold like this is worth so much more than the bars we make and it will be safer for the men. Not to mention the saving from not having to run the refinery." Jim said looking at the gold bar in his hand.

"Deal. Start at the top and work your way down the mountain. I'll cast that spell three times a week. And we'll exchange your gold twice a week in Salt Lake." Harry said.

"Boys, count out those bars and separate them out three to one. We need strong boxes." Jim said as Sam handed Harry a bottle of beer.

"Thanks Sam." Harry said trying to hand him two silver dollars.

"On the house Harry." Sam said laughing as he patted him on the back.

"Good man Sam, you're a good man." Harry said popping the swing top and taking a deep drink as Neville helped collect the bars in his bag.

Another impossible feat of magic Harry did that made the people treat him like a god was he built a wall around Hamilton with a few spells. He started with the huge pile of sand he got from the mine and a few dozen bars of steel. He made steel by refining the iron bars and adding carbon to make 4150 steel. He stood in the middle of town and cast the goblin charms and turned the sand and steel into a 60x30 foot sandstone frame that was faced on all sides with steel. It was 10 inches tall and 2.5 inches wide.

He floated the structure up in the air 50 feet and hit it with an expansion charm. The frame expanded into a 1500x750 foot outer wall that was 20 foot tall and 5 foot wide. On the top of the wall was 4 foot plate steel rampart and ladders to get to the top of the wall. The front gate in the wall was two big steel doors that swung shut on big hinges and locked with a big dead bolt.

"There, now you don't have to worry about anything." Harry said looking drained.

"No shit. I didn't even think you could do something like that." Roy said looking at the wall.

"It takes a lot of power. I mean a lot. This was the first and only thing I'm going to do with magic for the next two days. You'll notice I cheated the walls south by a lot more than your old wall. That's because that big rock in the southeast corner marks the northern tip of a gold and silver deposit. It's about twenty feet under ground and from the detection spells I cast it's a big deposit. Big enough to make this small town very rich and give you all something to do for the next twenty years. Dig out as much ore as you can and I'll melt it down for you." Harry said pulling out a candy bar.

"Harry, how the hell are we ever going to make up for all the things you've done for our small town?" Roy said.

"You can't repay me because I still owe you. The amount of purpose I feel when I come here stays with me for days. You have to understand something Roy, I was not a good person where I came from, I killed people. That was my job. They were all bad guys, and my job now is a lot like that too, but I used to do it from the shadows. Now I get to be a hero, a good guy, and I love it." Harry said with a smile.

Then there were things that were harder to understand and get used to. Things like the magic people tended to use. It was weak and limited which kind of made sense after they heard that the magical school at Salem was destroyed twenty years ago by dragons killing off a good portion of magical kids and most of the best teachers in America. Like the two magical wars in the UK, there was a lost generation of kids and they would have been the adults of today. Because of the destruction of the school most magical parents home schooled their kids with the basic magical knowledge they had in between working their asses off trying to get by on the small wages they made.

Like the language of Latin itself magic was slowly dying out in America. The simple spells, first level potions, basic conjuring and transfigurations, and entry level battle spells were all that most of them knew. High level battle magic, advanced transfiguration, enchantments, hard to brew potions, curse breaking and wards were impressive feats of magic to the wizards of America. They assumed it was different in Europe but they didn't know. If it was the same there too then the girls were the most knowledgeable witches in the world.

That being said magic had advanced in some aspects beyond where they were when they came back. As they found out quick enough flying was the best way to get around. It was safer to fend off the very random dragon attack then it was to fend off everything else on the ground. Or that was how it was explained to Harry the first time he saw a flying ship.

Harry was patrolling the air above the town of Hamilton on his way back from Salt Lake with the mail at the end of his first week as marshal. He made the mail trip twice a week and it gave him or Neville something to do on light days. As he flew around looking for something to shoot at he saw something big in the distance. It was a brown dot and as he flew at it at top speed it's form became clearer. It was a ship. A classic looking pirate ship without sails or a mast. The ship was 250 foot long, 90 foot wide, and 50 foot tall from deck to ship bottom. It had two small pairs of wings made of canvas and brass framework ribbing. One pair on the sides of the ship aligned out and down looked like stubby bird wings and the other pair of wings were attached to the back and acked as a tail fins/rutters. There was a pair of big multi bladed propellers in the back pushing the ship along. It was flying a few thousand feet off the ground and moving at a good clip.

Harry got within a few hundred feet of the ship and saw a crew of 10 sailors in heavy wool Navy blue deck uniforms of thick pants, wool turtleneck sweaters, peacoats, and ski caps. They were acting as look outs in all directions and manning the ten guns on the deck of the ship as a man in a dress Navy uniform and long coat stood on an upper covered deck steering the ship with a big wheel, and a few sets of brass levers. He flew closer to get a better look but stopped as a voice came booming out of the ship at him.

"Halt Your Approach, And State Your Business!" the voice said and Harry could see the three heavy deck guns on the closest side of the ship to him were aimed right at him.

"I'm Marshal Harry Steel From The Town Of Eureka! I Saw Your Approach And I Came To See What You Were!" Harry called back holding up his silver star.

"You May Came Aboard!" Came a reply and Harry flew over and landed on the deck. He was greeted by two sailors with revolvers out.

"Let's see that star if you don't mind marshal?" One of the men said holding out his hand.

"Sure, here." Harry said pulling back his coat to show off the star as he looked around the ship with wide eyes. It was a nice ship to start with, hand carved details everywhere, high gloss varnish and polished brass fixtures.

"Sorry about that marshal, as you know ships like ours are prime targets for broom raids. They are few and far between but they happen. Welcome aboard the St. Mary. We run cargo for United Shipping and we have all of our US stamps and seals if that's what you're here to check. I'm first mate Ron Butterfield. Our captain is James Carver." The head sailor said putting away his gun and having his men follow.

"No offence taken. I just saw you guys on the horizon and came to see what this was." Harry said looking at the breech loaded parrot guns, and the belt fed gatling guns mounted on swivels.

"First time seeing an airship up close marshal?" He asked with a grin.

"Yes. How the hell are we flying?" Harry asked.

"How was your broom flying? This ship works with the same spells and enchantments. The St. Mary was made by the Cannonball broom company and this is a bulk carrier class ship. We make the run between major cities hauling goods, precious metals, the mail, and money. We just made a delivery in Salt Lake City and we're headed to Sacramento and then on to San Francisco next before we head south on our way back to our home base in Chicago after making our way around the south and east coast. The trip takes about six weeks with loading and unloading." Ron said.

"I have so many questions. First off, how fast does she go?" Harry asked.

"At half load like we are now we can move at a good clip. We're doing about 120 miles an hour. Fully loaded like we will be when we get back to home base, we'll barely top out at 75. Empty this big girl could do 190. Close to 200 if we had a good tail wind." Ron said proudly.

"How much does one of these cost?" Harry asked.

"This ship cost just a hair under 3 million dollars." Ron said.

"Holy shit! Are they all this big and expansive?" Harry asked looking around the ship.

"No. Airships come in all shapes and sizes. They make make small ones that are a lot cheaper but this ship is a mega haler. She has three cargo decks and 186,000,000 cubic feet of cargo space and a crew of 75. We are one of six ships in the rotation around the US, and we are tasked by the US government to handle all mail shipments around the county. The St. Mary is also 15 years old. Newer ships are cheaper now that there are a few companies that make different classes and types of ships. You can find everything from small 25 foot personal racing/fighter type craft to the huge dreadnought class ships the Navy use. They're big steel clad sleeker models that are loaded down with guns and have a higher top speed." Ron said walking him around the deck of the ship before walking him up to the captain.

"Marshal I hope we don't have an issue, we're running late thanks to the dock workers in Salt Lake and we need to make up time." Captain Cutter said checking his gold pocket watch. The captain looked like a no nonsense military type that lived and died by that watch.

"No problem at all Captain, I was making a patrol and spotted you. I just came over to see what you were. Your air ship is the first one I ever saw. Your first mate was just giving me the rundown on your ship and I must say the St. Mary is impressive. I'm sorry if I held you boys up. I wish you all safe passage and I'll be on my way." Harry said shaking the captain's hand and hopping on his broom.

"Thank you marshal. Have a good day." The captain said as Harry took off and flew back a few feet. He pulled out his phone and shot video of the ship to show his brother. They needed one. He didn't care what it cost. They would have a ship like that.

When he got back to the cube and showed Neville he was just as excited. That night they turned the 19 big 400 ounce gold bars they had into 76 saller 100 ounce bars and added them to the 19 gold bars they got out of the mine so far and set it all aside in a trunk marked airship. At $24 an ounce that was $228,000. When they had half a million dollars they would go buy an airship.

It wasn't all fun and good times though. Hamilton, Eureka, and Ely were all attacked on Halloween night by dragons. It was a conclave of 7 dragons, 3 dragons attacked Eureka, 3 attacked Ely, and 1 attacked Hamilton. In Hamilton's case. The night watchman sounded the alarm and all of the residents made it to the town hall and they portkeyed to just inside the front gate of Eureka and right into the fight. A few minutes before their town was attacked the 3 dragons attacked Eureka's wards and the watchmen sounded the alarm to wake up the town.

Harry had been waiting for something like this all day. He got up that morning waiting for the other shoe to drop. Abby thought it was funny.

"Harry, nothing bad is going to happen today. Everything is going to be fine. There is nothing special about this day other than the fact that it's a holiday." She said with a laugh but she was the only one laughing.

"I hate to break it to you, but Harry is cursed. Something bad always happens on Halloween." Neville said checking his guns and loading his bag with extra ammo.

"Every year. Big or small, bad shit always happens." Harry said cleaning and loading his four colts.

"Mia, you don't buy into this too do you?" Abby asked.

"He's cursed. What's to buy. I've personally seen a number of really bad things happen to him on October 31st." Hermione said looking on edge as well. She was seated at the table with her books as always but she was wearing her snake skin vest and her gun belt.

"Really? Like what?" Abby asked.

"Let's run down the list backwards. 2015 I got shoot by a regular bullet. It happens all the time but this one went through my dragon hide vest and tore me up inside. That was the only time in the history if these dragonhide vests failing. 2014 I got hit by a car driven by a drunk driver as I was crossing the street in London. I broke both my legs and cracked my skull. 2013 I took a vacation, I was flying around in a small plain and a flock of birds hit the plane. I had to ditch over a freezing cold lake. 2012 I was hit in the head by a big pipe and ended up in a coma that lasted three days. I still get random migrans from that one. 2011 I was stabbed in the back by a Chinese spy, literally. We were going at it in bed and she pulled a knife out of nowhere and stabbed me in the kidney. I almost died. 2010 I walked up to a car I thought was a cash hand off and the car blew up with me ten feet away I took a bunch of shrapnel all over my body and I have a few really nasty scars still to this day. 2009 I fought with a double agent selling secrets in a hotel in Miami. We fell into a pool and he almost drowned me. 2008 wasn't too bad I think." Harry said scratching his chin.

"In 2008 you Halo jumped into what we thought was an Al Qaeda prison camp where they were holding allied prisoners. But we got bad intel and you ended up inside a terrorist training camp and they knew you were coming. It was an ambush and you got shot like ten times trying to make your way out of the wards they had up to stop you from portkeying out. That's the reason we have the emergency watches that work even under an anti-portkey ward." Hermione said.

"Right. I forgot about that." Harry said making a face.

"In 07 you got blown up by an IED in Egypt." Neville said laughing.

"That's right. That one left a good scar too!" Harry said laughing sadly.

"Of course 06 was the worst." Hermione said looking sad.

"What happened in 2006? You were shot, stabbed, and blown up all at the same time?" Abby asked laughing but stopped when Harry stood up and walked away.

"On Halloween 2006 Harry proposed to his long time girlfriend Susan on her birthday. She said no, and she left him. He almost drank himself into a coma." Hermione said sadly.

"Oh god." Abby said looking ready to cry.

"You didn't know. It's fine. You coming Nev? Let's get this day over with." Harry said from the doorway dressed in his long snakeskin coat with his rifle over his shoulder.

"Yeah Harry. Let's get it over with." Neville said kissing his wife before following him out of the house.

That day went off without a hitch. Instead of that fact making him happy, Harry got more and more unnerved as the day went on. That night he slept in his full armor and gun rig in a recliner chair in his living room. He heard knocking at the front door. It was loud and panicked knocking and he was out of his chair, with a gun in his hand before he knew what was going on. He ran to the front door. He got there almost at the same time as Neville who also had a gun in his hand and a confused look on his face. From the way he was dressed it looked like he slept in his clothes minus the vest. Harry opened the door and heard air raid siren he saw a panicked Alice.

"WHat's going on?" Harry asked.

"Dragons!" She screamed.

"How many?" Harry asked pulling her inside the cube and slipping out to see.

"Three! They bounced off the wards. They are attacking the wards to get to the farm!" She half screamed and half said.

"Stay inside and stay calm." Harry said as the girls showed up looking panicked.

Harry's bag, and coat came flying at him a second in front of Neville's gear. Harry pulled on his bag and coat. He pulled out his broom and took off with Neville right on his tail. They blasted up into the air and saw the three good sized dragons bouncing off the ward dome over the town. Harry flew right at them as he pulled out his 500 nitro express rifle with shrapnel rounds. The bullet weighed 64 grams or 2.25 ounces and it was propelled by 1,500 grains or 3.4 ounces of magical gun powder. The bullet was made of magical red brass. It had a jacketed core of hardened steel. On impact the red brass case exploded apart inside the animal and the core tore a huge hole out the other side of the animal. It was made to hunt big magical things like dragon, troll, and giant. It hit like a freight train and put a foot wide hole through things. Harry stopped a few hundred feet away and made sure Neville had his gun out too.

"I'm going to the big orange one to the left, you go for the one on the right and we'll both take the one in the middle. If we miss I'll play the rabbit." Harry said sighting in on his 25 foot long dragon.

"Ready when you are." Neville said aiming at his dragon.

Harry pulled the trigger. The gun bucked in his hands and threw him back a dozen feet making him almost fall off his broom. It also bruised his collar bone but the round struck true. He blasted a foot wide hole through the big orange dragon's four foot wide neck. It reared back and let out a choked screech as blood shot out of it's neck like a fire hose. It grabbed its neck before it tried to fly away. It got over the mountain before falling out of the sky. Neville's dragon suffered a similar fate. The round struck its head right where the neck attached to the back of the head. It severed the dragon's spine and it fell out of the sky. It hit the mountain, bounced and fell into the field next to Kate and Bobby's farm house dead.

The third dragon however saw what happened and locked eyes on the two men on brooms. Harry saw this and slung his gun over his shoulder as he flew right at the dragon. The dragon looked confused for a second before it lunged at him. Harry dove over the mountain with the big dragon on his tail. Harry lead it away from the town and straight into the ground. At the last second he pulled out and shot back up. The dragon was on him until he heard a shot in the distance and heard a screech. He chanced a glance back over his shoulder and saw the dragon fall out of the sky. He cast a flare spell over the town making it bright enough to see everyone who was gathered in the town looking confused until they saw him and Neville.

"Everyone remain calm!" He called out quieting the crowd. "Thank you. We killed the three dragons. Hermione gather the dead dragon corpses and drop them in the field in front of the farm. We need to take them apart now or they will go bad. Were…" Harry was interrupted from asking if there were anymore dragons when a big orange dragon came flying at him at top speed and bit at him. If he didn't roll out of the way he would have been dinner.

The dragon flew out and came back at him. Harry swung up his rifle and blasted it in the face right above it's snout. The momentum of it's flight took it's dead body past Harry and into the side of the mountain that made up the left side of the town. It hit the rock wall with a heavy slam and started to fall onto the town but Harry stopped it's fall and drug it to the farm where he let it fall. He was about to relax when he saw fire in the distance.

"Dragon's are attacking Ely. Mia take care of these, we have to go." Harry said.

He waited until she giving him the thumbs up before he took off towards Ely at top speed. The trip took less then 10 minutes and as they approached they saw the dragons start to bring down the wards. They flew in close and took out two of the dragons with head shots but again the third dragon saw his friends die and went right for Harry. He dove out of the sky with the beast fireballing at him. He arched over and just avoided getting snapped in half by the giant maw of the beast. He heard the shot and felt heat as the beast tried to burn him before he died.

Harry again repeated his calming words as they boxed up the dragons in expanded trunks and hung them from their brooms. By the time they landed they were mostly done skinning the first dragon. He looked down at his watch and saw it was one minute after midnight November first. He looked up at the sky, shook his head and laughed a sad laugh.

"October 31st. Hallo-fucking-ween. Every fucking year." He muttered before going to work on breaking down the dragons. It took all night and it was just after seven in the morning when they were finished with the last dragon. Harry walked into his room. Took off all of his clothes and fell into his bed where he slept all day until the next morning. When he was woken up by Neville knocking on his door.

"What?" Harry said rolling out of bed.

"Emergency in Hamilton Harry." He said.

"Shit." Harry said shooting out of bed and pulling on his clothes. He came out of his bedroom door 30 seconds later buttoning his vest with his gun belt and shoulder rig over his shoulder. "What's going on?" Harry asked pulling on his shoulder rig and checking his two colts.

"A fucking army of undead is making it's way towards the town from the south. Watchers on the wall counted hundreds of them. They are really dead and moving slow but they will overrun the town if we don't stop them." Neville said as Harry pulled on his gun belt and checked his other two colts.

"So we'll fly over to Hamilton and take care of it." Harry said walking into the dining room and grabbing a piece of toast off Hermione's plate.

"Hey I was eating that." She said.

"Can't talk, gotta run." He said grabbing her coffee cup and drinking half of it before making a face. "It needs sugar." Harry said setting her cup back down before walking away.

"Worst brother ever." She said with a smirk.

They grabbed their coats and hat and they were about to fly to Hamilton when Harry turned and headed north to the mine.

"Harry where are you going?" Neville asked.

"I got an idea." Harry said landing at the mining office close to the mine.

Five minutes later they were flying at top speed with three crates of dynamite. That was 375 sticks. That was way more than they needed but Harry had other plans for it. As they got closer they could hear the gunshots. As they approached they saw the horde of undead. There had to be more than two thousand of them. And unlike the ones they were used to these looked less fresh. They were mostly bone and dried flesh. At this point they were at the wall. In fact if the wall wasn't there the town would have been under the horde. As it was they were stacking on top of each other to get over the wall like a flood. A few men in the town were on the wall shooting the ones that made it over. But there were only four of them and they had shitty old double barrel shotguns and hunting rifles. Harry flew down to the wall and pulled his two colts out of his gun belt and blasted three zombie's heads clean off.

"Clear off the wall and fall back to the ward line. If they get by me take them down. Here, take these." Harry said pulling a canvas sack out of his bag and tossing it to one of the men. Inside was 8 beat up colt single actions and gun belts. "Arm the rest of the able bodied men." Harry said taking out five more zombies that made it over the wall. Six more came over. He basted them and when he ran out of bullets he holstered his guns and drew his second pair.

He waited until the men got away before he took off on his broom. As soon as he cleared the wall Neville started lighting sticks of dynamite and dropping them at the back of the horde. Ten big booms later and the horde was much smaller. They tossed a few more sticks before they dropped down closer and started popping heads. It took an hour to get them all and a few made it into town but the men took care of them. The clean up took longer. Harry started just summoning things into piles. They ended up with 384 revolvers and gun belts. Hundreds of blades. A big pile of gold and silver jewelry and teeth. And a big pile of bones. Harry cooked them all with a flame spell and turned the pile of gold and silver into 6 bars of gold and 8 bars of silver which he pocketed along with the guns and blades. When they were done the men tried to give the guns back but Harry waved them off.

"Keep them. I'll bring some more ammo later. For now arm the watchmen with those." Harry said before they headed off.

They flew south to see where the horde came from. They tracked the path of the zombies for miles. It was not hard to see where they traveled. The ground was littered with foot prints and drag marks a mile wide. They followed the path back all the way to a mass grave close to Troy peak. The grave was the sight of a big fight. The forest by the base of the peak was the the sight of a secondary rip were a bunch of horrible things came out. A lot of people died in the surrounding areas and they must have been dumped in a mass grave pit. But not all of the undead they killed that day came from the pit. They saw a smaller path leading to the the southeast. They were about to follow that when they got a call from Hermione.

"Guy you better portkey back right now!" She said looking worried.

"Why? What's going on?" Harry asked.

"A floating skeleton is attacking the wards at the front gate with a hundred undead." She said.

"We're portkeying to the cube now." Harry said pulling out a gold pen and holding it out to his brother. They vanished and reappeared in the cube's front hallway. They ran out and saw big blasts of green spell fire from the wall. They hopped on their brooms and flew to the gate where they saw Hermione casting spells at the floating skeleton as a hundred undead battered at the gate. Harry light a stick of dynamite and tossed it into the undead. When it blew up the number of undead battering the gate was cut in half. Neville tossed a stick closer and got most of the rest. Both men pulled out their rifles and shot at the floater but he just kept eating bullets. As his skull was caved in by a round from Harry it fell but then it got back up and the hole was gone.

"It's no use. He just reforms." Hermione said casting spells at the wards to strengthen them.

"That's because he's a litch. We need to find his phylactery." Alice said helping Hermione.

"Right. What's a phylactery?" Harry asked.

"A vessel with the litch's soul. It can't be too far from here. Once you break it he should die." Alice said as Neville kept shooting the litch in the face. It wasn't killing it but it was keeping it down.

"Good to know." Harry said trying to summon it. Nothing happened. He tried locate it but the spells weren't helping.

Then he looked down at the undead. These zombies, unlike the horde that attacked Hamilton, were fresh. And they were all indians. Duckwater was a reservation 40 miles south of Eureka. Harry took off headed south of the town looking for anything that would act as a soul vessel. He flew up high and searched out with his magic. Then he felt it. Something cold and dark. He followed that feeling to a gold jug hiding in a pile of rocks. Harry landed close by and scanned the area for any more undead. He was lucky he did, a group of six fresh undead ran at him with guns in their hands. Harry drew his guns and blasted them all before they got too close. He took aim at the gold jug and shot it but the bullets just bounced off.

He tried hitting it with a bombarda but it just blew up the rocks around the jug. He tried a flame spell, and an aicd spell but they too failed to make a dent in the jug.

"Fine, no more mister nice guy." Harry said as he lit five sticks of dynamite and placed them next to the jar before flying up. It exploded shattering the jar in a blast of green dark magic. In fact if he wasn't fast enough with a powerful shield charm he would have been blasted with death magic. He got a call a few seconds later.

"Good job. The litch is down." Neville said.

"Good to know. I'm bringing the philactor... thingy back." Harry said summoning the pieces into a bag and flying back. They were collecting bones as he dropped down.

"We have to destroy all of this and scatter what's left over." Alice said.

"That's my cue. What are we talking about here? Fire? Explosives? Melt it down and turn it into something else? You pick." Harry said dumping out the bag next to the bones of the litch.

"Fire, lots and lots of fire. Until there's only ash left, if that. As for the gold, can you use that refining spell to strip away any leftover dark magic. Then make a few coins and ditch them in a big city." Alice said.

"Yes Ma'am, I can do that. Can I have everyone back up a bit." Harry said waving them back before hitting the bones with a fire spell that blasted everyone close by with intense heat and turned the bones into ash. He then banished the ash. He turned the gold bits of the vase into a small gold bar that weighed 47 ounces. He summoned anything he could from the dead into a trunk and burned the bodies. It was mostly gun belts with revolvers, knives, tomahawks, and native american jewelry.

"There, now we have to get back to the search. This time we have to do a fly by over Duckwater. If I'm right, we're going to find the town empty. I have a feeling we just killed off the people of Duckwater." Harry said sadly.

"Was that where you found the Phylactery?" Alice asked sadly.

"On the road to town. Duckwater kept to themselves. They never wanted or needed our help so I wrote them off in my head. I mean the town was protected by tribal wards and the town was well armed. But I can't help this feeling in the pit of my belly. I should have tried harder to help the small town. They were in our county. It was on us to look out for them." Harry said looking tired and worn out and the day wasn't even halfway over yet.

"Harry you can't beat yourself up over this. You and Neville have done ten times more for the county then the last twenty marshals ever did. The world is a dangerous place Harry. The fact of the matter is a litch raised an army of more than 2,000 undead and sent them to attack Hamilton. Probably on their way here after killing and turning everyone in that small town. The litch attacked Duckwater where it turned all of that small town into the walking dead. If you two weren't here we'd all be dead and an army of 3,350 undead would have hit the town of Ely. From there an army of close to 5,000 undead would have hit Salt Lake City, by way of all the small towns between us and the city. Even if we lost 130 odd souls in Duckwater it's still not as big of a tragedy as it could have been." Alice said patting Harry on his face with a sad but thankful look. It was a look that spoke of the tragedies she had seen in her life.

"I understand Alice. I'm just not looking forward to finding a ghost town." Harry said with the same sad look in his eyes.

"I know dear. Did you find were these things came from? Are we out of the woods now?" She asked.

"We're not sure. We tracked the path of the zombies back to Troy peak but the tracks of a smaller horde continue south and east of there." Harry said.

"That makes a lot of sense. Adaven is south east of there." She said sharing a knowing look with marshal John.

"What's Adaven?" Harry asked.

"It's a small town... Was a small mining town a bit bigger then Hamilton. But when the mine dried up and the rip opened near Troy peak the townspeople fled. After the rift closed we heard stories of the town. Stories of a cult of dark wizards practising all sort of dark magic. Human and animal sacrifice. Orgies. Cannibalism. It's a place where nightmares are made. No one goes there. In fact we stay out of that part of the state and any place where a rip opened. The dark magic in the air is palpable." Alice said.

"Well it looks like we have a target. Let's head off Nev." Harry said.

"Maybe we should take a break first Harry. Get something to eat. Load up on ammo and then head out." Neville said.

"Good thinking, I'm almost out of .45lc ammo." Harry said heading back to the cube as he went the townspeople cheered for them and patted them on the back. Harry nodded and waved back before they made it into the cube. Abby made some dragon steak sandwiches from the leftover slow cooked dragon roast they had the night before and they ate as they processed the day so far.

After lunch Harry cleaned out all the spent brass casings he used into a tin five gallon bucket they had. They traded the bucket to Smith for half off their monthly ammo bill which at this point was up $150. The smokeless powder filled brass jacketed lead rounds cost five times more per box than standard ammo but the rounds were five times better. Harry filled his gun belt and his coat pocket with two boxes of ammo. He also pulled out his MP5K and ditched the enchanted magazine. They spent the next twenty minutes loading the 50 standard 30 round MP5 magazines they had with bulk NATO 9mm.

"Do you think it's a good idea to load up on regular brass Harry? This stuff doesn't vanish like the magical brass dose." Hermione asked.

"I don't plan on leaving any witnesses or brass laying around. We're going to do recon on the town under invisibility cloaks and if it's as bad as Alice says it is then we're going to drop a set of ward stones over the town and clean it out. When were done, and we know there's no one left in the town we'll summon all the spent brass burn the bodies and collect the lead and brass from the bullets. Then we'll call you guys in when it's all clear and you guys can search the town for anything useful. But first we have to check on Duckwater. We have to see if there are any survivors, and if there are we need to help them. If not then we need to clear out the town of anything useful. In fact you girls can help us do that. We'll fly there and check it out and then call you in after we secure the town. We have two sets of ward stones right?" Harry asked.

"We do, but I don't feel really comfortable sacking a town Harry." Hermione said.

"Me either Harry. It seems wrong. We just killed the townsfolk and now we're robbing from them." Abby said.

"I know. Trust me I know. I feel more guilty than either of you two about the town. But if we don't collect anything useful out of the town then some band of crooks are going to take it. We have to get all the guns, ammo, food, horses, and anything like that out so the ghost town doesn't act as a supply hub for a group of outlaws. As it is I'm thinking about shrinking the houses and moving them to Hamilton. The town was small but well stocked with can goods, meat, guns, furs and hides. The townspeople were hunters and traders. They didn't have much in the way of cash. But the food they had will go a long way this winter. We can either leave it in the ghost town for criminals or we can take it, and hand it out over the winter to the townspeople that can use it. This world is a lot darker than ours. We in turn have to be a bit harder." Harry said loading a magazine into his MP5K and standing up. He handed half the magazines to Neville and put the rest in his bag. He slung the gun over his shoulder and put on his coat and hat.

They headed out of the cube and flew to Duckwater or what was left of it. It was clear to see from a distance that the very small town had been wrecked. A few of the houses looked partially destroyed, and the wall around the town was smashed. They dropped in over the small town made up of eight barracks like buildings, two watch towers, and a pen for horses. As soon as they got close they could see what happened to the town. There were bodies littering the ground. Undead with missing heads as well as dead townsfolk that were ripped open and their insides were tore out. Most of them were children. There were a few shotguns, rifles, and revolvers on the ground scattered amongst the dead.

"Fuck." Harry said as he scanned the small town that was smaller than a football field.

"Jesus Harry." Neville said looking at a small girl about six years old that looked half eaten.

"I Know. I ran a scan on the town. There's no one left." Harry said looking really pissed off.

"These were children. There's blood everywhere. They were alive when they were attacked." Neville said looking green.

"Go check the horses. I'll take care of this." Harry said.

"No, I'll be fine. But if we find a dark wizard's den then we're killing them all." Neville said.

"I already planned on it. Let's summon all the bodies over here into a pile and I'll burn then." Harry said moving the undead in the streets into a pile.

Neville saw his brother was blocking it all out of his mind. Trying to get the town cleaned up so that the girls didn't have to see this. He summoned the dead bodies of half eaten children and undead into the corner. Harry made a pile for any valuables they had. He then burned the bodies to ash. Both men had tears in their eyes as they watch the fire consume the bodies.

Harry saw movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned with his gun up pointed at a huge man standing by the broken front gate. He was about six and a half foot tall, and four foot wide. He had a wild mane of red hair and a big bushy red beard. He was wearing a mix match of leather and fur clothing topped off with a confederate cap. He had beat up looking Sharps rifle in his hands but on his belt he had three cap and ball revolvers, a cavalry saber, two tomahawks, and a big knife. His eyes were locked on Harry but his rifle was in the low ready position.

"You do this?" The big man asked in an odd sounding voice. Like his tongue was too heavy and dry.

"No, we're marshals from Eureka. I'm going to pull back my coat to show off my star." Harry said turning slowly and pulling back his coat.

"Well Fuck." The big man said looking angry and sad at the same time as he slung his rifle on his back.

"Were you a resident of the town?" Harry asked trying not to stare at the pile of burning mangled body for too long.

"No, I live in the woods. I traded with the town." The big man said walking into the town he stopped and looked at the pier. "Fuck." He said again. "WHo did this?" He asked.

"Undead. A litch came through with a group of undead and tore this town apart. They hat a few other towns too. We managed to stop them. We think the undead as well as the litch came from Adevan. Ever heard of it?" Harry asked.

"It's south of here." The big man said coldly turning to walk away.

"You got a name?" Harry asked.

"Shamus." The man said grabbing an old beat to shit broom that was leaning up against the wall where he came in.

"Your a mage?" Harry asked.

"Untrained." Shamus said.

"Where you off to?" Harry asked with a knowing tone.

"Adevan." Shamus said grabbing a gun belt and two colt single actions out of the pile Harry made.

"Your one man." Harry said with a small sad smile.

"With six guns." Shamus said with a finality to his words.

"If you wait a few minutes we're headed that way too." Harry said in a cold tone.

"I can wait." Shamus said leaning against the wall and watching the magical fire consume the bodies.

Harry banished the ashes and fixed the wall around the town with a few spells before they called in the girls. Hermione, Abby, Alice, Kate, and marshal john landed next to the horse pen where they dropped the portkey. When the girls landed they saw the haunted looks in their eyes and knew it was bad.

"We burned the dead, and fixed the wall but the wards are done for. The litch must have overloaded the ward anchor stone. We're headed to Adaven with Shamus over here. Take what you can from the town and be ready to move at any moment. John, can you keep watch from the tower by the main gate. If you see more undead or anything like that I want you guys to portkey out." Harry said.

"We will Harry." Hermione said touching his hand before going to her husband and kissing him. "How bad?" She asked softly.

"Worser then you can possibly imagine. This will haunt me for a long time." Neville said holding her tighter.

"We'll talk later." She said as he pulled back.

"We'll call you when we clear out the town." Harry said mounting up his broom alongside his brother and the mountain man they picked up.

The three men made the 50 mile trip to Adevan in a half hour thanks to the speed of Shamus' old beat up broom.

You had that broom a long time?" Harry asked trying to make conversation.

"I was assigned to the magical mounted cavalry." Shamus said. The more he talked the less odd he sounded. It made Harry realize the man did have a speech impediment he just wasn't used to talking this much.

"They had a magical mounted division in the Civil war?" Harry asked.

"It was a small unit formed at the end of the war." Shamus said.

"How much Magic do you know?" Harry asked.

"Not much. I never went to school. I picked up little things along the way. Fire shells, water, light, explosions, things that are useful." He said.

They stayed high in the clouds and hidden under disillusionment spells. They surveyed the town and found the cesspool of dark magic they were looking for. If George Romero, Steven King, and Wes Craven combined all of their worst nightmares together they would have come up with this place. To start with there were flayed dead bodies and heads on spikes around the top of the outer walls surrounding the town of 28 buildings. Patrolling outside the walls were three very big spiders with green glowing stones embedded in the top of their skulls. Patrolling the town were undead. Dozens of them. They saw a bunch of men in black robes walking about the town. It was a bizarro world down there. Things were like a normal town but dark and twisted. In the center of town where it looked like a church used to sit was now a black stone altar with a big wooden X. On the X was a naked woman that looked dead by the amount of blood and cuts that covered her body. In the butcher's shop instead of sides of beef there were flayed bodies hanging in the window.

"How do you want to do this Harry?" Neville asked.

"Lets drop the ward stone set around the town, land in a back corner of the town and go building to building just taking them out quickly and quietly. The more we can do this without raising suspicion the better. If we alert the villagers we'll take to the air and finish them off starting the with spiders and undead. If shit really gets bad we'll drop sticks of dynamite on the town and pick through the rubble later. By my count I feel more than 200 living people in that town. I have a feeling they are not all dark wizards. Some of them may be people they captured. But I have to think we're dealing with about 200 targets. Lets keep it quiet for as long as we can. Shamus, this is a silent gun." Harry said pulling the sig226 from undercover rig and handing it to the man.

"The fuck is this?" Shamus asked looking at the semi-auto handgun.

"You hold it like this and pull the trigger. It has 150 rounds. The slide comes back when you shoot it so watch your hand. Think you can handle it?" Harry asked.

"I think I got it but I'll stick with my tomahawks." He said tucking the gun into his belt.

"Okay. I would offer you an invisibility cloak but the disillusionment charm should work well enough for you. You're a hunter you can be light on your feet.

They dropped six glowing red stones around the town a hundred feet from the town wall and when the last one hit the ground a light shot between all the stones and they glowed brighter. They pulled on their invisibility cloaks and flew to the back corner of the town where they spotted a wizard in black robes having sex with a witch in black robes on a chair behind the house. Both of them were covered in tattoos. Harry shot both in the head with his MP5, turned them into coins, and they moved into the house where they found three more wizards in black robes sleeping in cots Harry pulled out his knife and the other two followed his lead. A minute later they slipped out of the house which was full of dark objects, booze bottles, opium hookahs and, the torso of a young boy hanging in the corner with bits cut from his body.

They moved from that house to the next and found more of the same. Five knocked out wizards, opium, whiskey bottles, and more dead bodies. They made quick work of them, turned them into coins, and moved on. In each house in the town they found dark witches and wizards either passed out or still partying from the night before. They made it through 21 buildings before they ran into trouble. Six undead wolves. They walked into a building and came face to face with six huge wolves that knew they were there. Half of them leapt at them as the other three started barking. Harry flipped the selector switch to full auto and sprayed the wolves with his mostly full magazine. Neville followed his lead but the jig was up. They heard shouting from outside. They ran out of the house and pulled out their brooms. They were in the air over the town in three seconds and they flew out of spell fire range

"Well that worked better than I expected." Harry said changing out his empty mag.

"Way better. With three of us working we made it all the way to the end before we got fucked." Neville said following his brother's lead.

"Now what?" Shamus asked.

"Now we finish them from the air starting with these big fuckers. Attack using anything you want. They know we're here." Harry said before attacking the spiders with his MP5.

They put the spiders down but it took a half a magazine each to drop them. They saw black robed figures rushing around the town trying to alert everyone that they had intruders. They picked off the undead and the stragglers from the air. Harry scanned the town and felt 30 living people in the town still. Harry ditched his cloak and flew closer to the town. He cast the sinuous.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! THIS IS THE US MARSHALS!" Harry called out but he got no response. He waited a minute before they landed in the town and split up to search out the stragglers. Harry felt a few people in the saloon. He pulled his cloak back on and check through a window and saw three men in black robes with guns and wands. Harry hit them with a short burst of full auto through the window. He still felt people inside so he came into the saloon through the back door and tracked the feeling to a cellar where he found kegs, crates full of bottles, and two more black robed wizards. He shot them both and turned them into coins before heading out. He made it up the stairs when he heard Neville call to him.

"Harry you need to see this!" He called out from the doorway of the old sheriff's office. Harry was going to cross the street when a green spell hit the wall next to him. He turned and found a wizard in the doorway to the casino. He was about to return fire when a tomahawk came flying into the man's head from the back.

"Thank's Shamus!" Harry called out as he ran to the sheriff's office. As soon as he walked in he saw six children in the holding cell. They looked like hell and they looked like they saw hell. They were all between the ages of six and ten.

"Hey kids, you got names?" Harry asked in a soft voice but they just stared blankly at him.

"It's no use, they're shell shocked Harry." Neville said.

"Hermione can erase their memories. For now guard them and I'll finish the clean up with Shamus. There are only a few of them left out there. Then we'll make the call. To tell you the truth, I feel like we should just summon guns, ammo, cash, and any thing valuable and then burn this town to the ground." Harry said heading out of the building in search of the rest. He was out of luck though, he felt eight people but only four of them were dark wizards. He found four naked women in the old brothel. They were tied to beds and they looked more then half dead. As soon as he approached them they started screaming.

Harry ran out and made the phone call to his sister. Soon Hermione and Abby were helping the women as Alice and Kate looked at the children. John looked around at the town and got sick. In the end they had to stun the women and children, transfigure them into coins and transport them back to Eureka to be taken care of. They ransacked the town as it got dark. When they were all done Harry tossed molotov cocktails through the windows of all the buildings and hit each roof with a fire spell to make sure the town burned.

Harry sat on his broom next to his brother and their new friend watching as Adaven burned to the ground.

"Shamus, you got a place to stay?" Harry asked.

"I have a place in the woods close to Duckwater. A magical tent ina cave. Now that Duckwater is gone I might move on." He said watching the bonfire.

"You should try heading to Eureka or Hamilton. You don't have to stay inside the city if you don't want but you have friends in both towns and work as a Marshal if you want it." Harry said.

"Maybe." Shamus said flying away.

That night Harry had a bottle of scotch for dinner. He drank it in his room sitting in a wing backed leather chair in sweats and a heavy bathrobe with the lights off. The only light came from the small fire burning in the fireplace in front of him. He had taken a long very hot shower and he still couldn't get the smell of rotting flesh off of his body. It was in his lungs. He heard a knock at his door. He was going to ignore it but he answered it in case something else happened. He saw Abby standing there in a bathrobe and white silk night gown. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and her face was free of makeup.

"I don't want to be alone tonight, and I don't think you should be either." She said softly.

"I'm not in the mood for sex. Not tonight." Harry said.

"Who said sex? I just can't sleep alone. I tried. I layed in bed and I couldn't sleep." She said.

"Come in." He said opening the door to let her in.

She walked into the dark room and over to the fireplace. She picked up the mostly empty bottle of Highland Park 25 year old and poured herself some in a glass she made with a wave of her wand as Harry took a seat in his chair. He thought she would sit in the other chair but she expanded the chair he was sitting on into a loveseat and sat next to him. For a while they just sat next to each other, drank, and watched the fire burn.

"Harry, how do you do your job? How do you see bad shit like we saw today and still go on living?" She asked.

"As you can see by the mostly empty bottle, shit like today affects me. I just have to keep thinking about the good things that happened today. We saved two towns from being overrun by zombies, we took out a litch and a dark magical cult, and despite how bad they are now we rescued four women and six children. It's going to take a lot of work on my sister's part to erase all the bad shit they witnessed but in a few weeks they will be normal again. They'll recover and live normal lives. As for the bad shit we saw today? That's going to live in my nightmares for the rest of my life. I saw horrors today that are way worse then anything I ever saw before. Murder I can deal with. Cannibalism on the other hand?" Harry said.

"That cult was like reavers. You know, from Firefly." Abby said.

"What's Firefly?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"What!? You've never seen Firefly?" Abby asked looking shocked until Harry laughed.

"Of course I've seen it. How many brown coat references have I made since we got here?" Harry said.

"You remind me of captain Reynolds you know? You live by a code. You take care of your family. And you do what you have to do when the chips are down." She said.

"I always pictured myself as Jayne." Harry said.

"No that's Neville. Big, tall, strong, scary guy that he can be at times." She said.

"What about you and Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Hermione is a mix of Kaylee, Simon, Zoe, and Shepherd Book. She's good at fabricating things, she can patch you up if you're hurt, and she's ready to back you up in a fight. But she also keeps you in check, and she's wise. As for me? I think I'm Inara in this crew." She said.

"I can see that. You are all pretty and such, and you got culture and what have you." Harry said laughing softly as the booze and energy drain where catching up with him.

"No like Inara I studied cultures and tribal customs. I can be a diplomat to Native tribes for this team. A big part of me feels bad about today because I feel like if you would have told me about the Duckwater situation I could have helped. I have magical tribal ink. I could have tried to talk to the town elder and made an inroad with them." she said.

"You could have?" Harry asked trying to push away the fog of all the scotch he drank.

"Yes. You have to come to the whole group with things like that. I have skills. I know you see me as a weak young girl. But I'm well read and ready for field work. I know you and Neville would never let me out into the field. And a part of me knows I'm not ready to take on this new world alone. But I want to be more of an asset to the team. I'm more than a bookworm. I just need field experience. That was what I was trying to get before we ended up here." she said softly.

"Look. I'm way too drunk to remember most of this conversation. But I'll try to get you out there more. But you have to speak up too. You're not a bench player Abby. If we talk about something at the table and you have imput speak up. I know you have skills, but like you said you're not battle tested, and I hate to say it but when shit hits the fan out there I need to know that my brother has my back. We've been through wars together and he will always be the first person I call for backup. But we can start bringing you on patrols with us. The thing is you're usually busy helping my sister. And to tell you the truth you're more valuable to her then us. We're meatheads with good aim and flexible morales. If I ended up here by myself I'd be dead by now. Hermione is the brains of this operation. So if she has need of you then you stay here. Her work is more important. I can get townspeople to help protect the two towns. In fact that's what I'm going to do tomorrow." Harry said standing up and headed to bed. He slipped into bed and looked at her.

"Well, you coming to bed or you plan on sitting in that chair all night?" Harry asked. Abby finished her drink and walked over to the big bed. She ditched her robe and slipped into the big king sized bed.

"Thank you for letting me stay here." She said. She got gentle snoring in response. She rolled over closer to his side and watched him sleep for a minute before she cuddled to his side and for the first time that night she fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Because this story is getting such bad ratings, and i keep getting PM's asking about Investigator Steel i will be going back to that story soon. it's almost sad because i like this story so much but no one else does. but i will keep this story open and keep adding to it when i can if just for my players and the few people reading it every week. i have this chapter and the next one half written. i had to put my game on hold so i can go back to reread Investigator Steel and see where i can pick it back up and finish it off. hopefully after i finish that one i can get more readers to come over to this story which i feel like is the closest thing to investigator Steel I've made since i stopped writing that story.

The next morning Harry woke up alone in his bed with a bad hangover. He took a hot shower, dressed for the day, and headed to the dining room where he found Abby eating breakfast.

"Hermione and Neville?" Harry asked as he sat down at the table.

"Out, Hermione is looking after the survivors, and Neville is on patrol." She said as she handed him a cup off coffee with a lot of cream and sugar and a hangover potion.

"Thank you." He said with a heavy sigh after downing the potion and chasing it with half a cup of coffee.

"Thank you for letting me sleep in your bed last night. It was the best night's sleep I've had since we got here." She said handing him a plate with three eggs over easy, three strips of bacon, and three thick pieces of toast.

"To tell you the truth I don't know if it was you or the bottle of scotch I drank but I slept better than I thought I would have last night." Harry admitted as he tried to eat.

"You know, if you ever wanted me to sleep with you…" She said before stopping and blushing which made Harry laugh so hard he almost choked.

"THat really didn't come out the way I wanted it to. Um, what I meant to say was if you ever wanted to share a bed again. In a non-sexual way, not that I'd be against that. It's just you haven't shown any interest and I don't want to force myself on you which I was not trying to do by the way last night. That was really just a fear of the dark last night…"

"Abby, Abby just stop before you hurt yourself trying to walk back a slip of the tongue. I understood what you meant. And for the record I find you very attractive, but I didn't want to make any waves in this team because for better or worse we're stuck together for the next hundred plus years. Also you're much younger then me, and I thought that the age gap might be a bit much. That being said, the idea of dating you is very appealing to me. Aside from the fact that you come from the same timeline I do, and the fact that you are insanely hot, I like the fact that you bathe everyday and shave your legs very much. So much so that none of the women we've met so far in this timeline have done anything for me." Harry said trying to be as eloquent as he could be with the hangover he had.

"I see. So you've spent almost no time with me or shown any interest in me because you didn't want to make waves?" Abby said nodding.

"Very much so. The old don't shit where you eat principle. Not the nicest way to put it but the best way to get the point across. The last real relationship I had was ten years ago, and my sister will argue it was the only one I ever had. As you know I asked her to marry me, she ended the relationship. She said a big part of ending it was the fact that my work kept her on edge all the time. The not knowing if I would be called away at all hours of the night to portkey around the world to god knows where to kill god knows who. But the other reason she left was because I'm short tempered, violent, reckless, and I don't enjoy talking about my feelings. I'd like to say that ten years has changed all that. But I have to admit I spent the last ten years whoring my way through a long list of foreign spies, diplomats, and unsavory women. I have no patients. And I still don't enjoy talking about my feelings. If you still find this package deal interesting, then we can try dating. I don't plan on sleeping with you until we know this is going to work because breaking up without having seen what we look like in the throws of passion will be easier with less feelings being hurt on your part." Harry said.

"Wow, okay then. Let try this then. Because let me fill you in on something. The longest relationship I've ever had was with a guy at Harvard. We dated for three months. He left me because I was short tempered, boring, and I didn't like talking about my feelings. I was raised by my grandparents and mostly by my grandfather. He was a Korean war vet, and a Texas Ranger for 35 years. I grew up with that man being my idol. So when you were just trying to talk me out of this I found it all very much a turn on." She said with a shrug.

"So I remind you of your grandfather?" Harry asked going back to his eggs.

"You do, and I don't have some sick daddy issues so drop the look. I grew up on a ranch in Texas. I like strong silent cowboy types. I'm not some delicate flower you know. I fucked the captain of the football team and when he cheated on me I kicked his ass. I've dumped guys because they wanted to talk about feelings. I'm not a lady, or a girly girl. I can gut and skin a cow in five minutes and I know how to fix my own car. For all intents and purposes I'm a slightly nerdy man's man with tits." Abby said letting a bit of her Texas twang out when she talked. Something Harry picked up on from his time talking to her.

"A guy with tits?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Don't get me wrong, they are some really nice tits. Something I'm quite proud of really." She said sticking out her chest and looking down at her boobs.

"They are your second best feature." Harry admitted.

"Second?" Abby asked.

"Your cold blue eyes. Your face really but I really like your eyes. They broker no bullshit and they harbor no lies. I like that." Harry said before going back to his breakfast.

"For the record I like your ass. Very tight for an old man." She said making him laugh again.

They finish breakfast in a contented silence. When he was done he vanished the plates and took the cups and silverware into the kitchen. When he came back she was working on a rune string. Harry dumped out his bag and added all the loose guns to the trunk of guns they found yesterday. Harry spent some time hitting the guns with repair charms and cleaning spells. He separated out the revolvers, long guns, gun belts, and ammo into three trunks. They had a lot of stock. So much stock that they could open a store. They had 589 revolvers, 144 lever action rifles, and 82 double barrel shotguns. Harry picked through the guns and took out anything that was really nice. He found a few nickel plated guns with engravings and ivory or pearl handles. He set those aside. He shrank the trunks and took them to Smith's shop.

"Come baring the spoils of war with the undead?" Smith asked.

"Yes, but unlike usual I have a few questions. If you were going to arm a deputy with a rifle and a revolver and you had all this what would you take?" Harry asked expanded the two trunks with long guns and revolvers.

"That depends, what are we talking about here? If you want to go shooting things outside of town then I'd take a rifle in 45-70 and a good .45 caliber revolver like the colt single action or a remington 1875. If you're not planning on coming up against anything too big like a spider and you're staying in town then I'd go with a winchester in 44-40 and a revolver in the same caliber. Something like a Scofield or a colt. That way you only need to carry one caliber of ammo. What are we talking about by the way?" Smith asked.

"I want to make a few kits, a rifle and a revolver and a few other things and hire a few townsfolk to act as sheriff's deputies for Eureka and Hamilton. This weekend I'm going to set up a tryout for sheriff's deputies. Eureka has a group of men that take shifts at the gate and crime is really low in the town, even though it's the 'Wild West' people don't tend to get too out of line. After all when you could be killed outside the walls of the town, folks try very hard to not get kicked out of town. But the local watch group is not a local sheriff department. They're ill equipped and most of them are trying to maintain a job in the mine or shop, or casino and working at the wall is a secondary job. In Hamilton it's much the same. We need men in charge of the towns like Ely. They have a town marshal that looks after the area around the town and a half dozen sheriff's deputies that look after the town. I figure I'll arm them and provide for ammo. And hand over my $3 a day pay we're only a few dollars short to paying for town sheriffs. I'm planning on talking to Alice about it, as well as Jim Williamson about coming up with a few more dollars a week to kick into the pot as well. This way we don't have to worry every time we leave town to run an errand." Harry said.

"Well in that case let's start pairing off rifles and revolvers and see what you have." Smith said pulling out a few rifles and looking them over.

In the end Harry made a separate trunk for all the guns he had in 44-40. He ended up with 37 rifles and 123 revolvers. He sold a few dozen nicer guns to Smith. He would need to sell the rest in Salt Lake. He took all 50 boxes of 44-40 ammo and 25 boxes of 12 gauge brass shells Smith had on hand. He headed back to the cube. He used the goblin charms and turned the big pile of old beat up gun belts into a big sheet of leather. He then used the tailoring spells and made 25 vests, and 25 long coats out of the dragon hide they got from the 7 dragons they killed. He also made 25 small doctor's bags out of regular leather. Finally he made 25 double gun belts with an attached knife sheath. He colored them all black. Next he took a big pile of beat up looking knives out of the blade trunk and using the goblin spell he melted them down and turned them into 50 five inch drop point knives with nice wood handles.

He cast an expansion charm on the bags and in each bag he put a vest, and a coat. He looked through the guns he had and put a rifle and a double barreled shotgun in each bag. He laid out the colt revolvers on the table. They made up the bulk of the revolvers he had in 44-40. He then paired them off by barrel length, fit, and finish. When he had 25 sets he put a set in each double gun belt along with a knife. He loaded the 50 bullet loops with the loose ammo he had in the trunk and put the gun belts in the bags. He boxed up the remaining 44-40 ammo in cardboard boxes, 50 rounds to a box. He ended up with 64 boxes. He made 25 more knife sheaths out of the leftover leather from the gun belts for the other 25 knives he made. He added a backup knife, 4 boxes of 44-40 ammo, and a box with 25 brass shotgun shells to each bag. He put all the bags into a trunk that he put into his bag.

He put the rest of the guns and the boxes of ammo back in the trunk in case they needed more kits like this in the future. He also boxed up the rest of the loose ammo in 50 round boxes and set the boxes in a trunk marked Cowboy Ammo.

He then headed off to meet with the town council members about his new sheriffs. He figured they needed at least 8 deputies for Eureka. He knew from Ely that sheriff's deputies made $4 a day. That meant they needed to come up with $32 a day or about $960 a month to pay for the peace officers. If he and Neville kicked in their comically low $3 a day pay into the pot. That brought them up to $360 a month. If they kicked in $40 more a month and the price of ammo to sweeten the deal that got them to $400. They just needed the town to kick in the rest. He talked to Alice about it and she was all too happy to look at the budget for the town and kick in $220 a month to the cause. Bringing them up to $620. After talking to Jim Williamson he left the office with a big grin on his face. He agreed to supply the other $340 a month if Harry agreed to patrol the small road to the mine. Something he already did.

Harry expanded the marshal station and added a few more desks. For now the deputies would fall under marshal John's command. He would handle shift assignments, pay, and patrol routes.

Harry cleared a space off to the side of the main gate and with Abby's help he set up a 3 gun course. That weekend he had the men of the local watch group run the course a few times before he timed them. Abby again helped him weed out the 16 watchmen down to the best 8 and he gave them the job of deputy sheriff. He handed each one of them a bag and a silver star.

The next day he did the same thing with Hamilton, which thanks to the gold coming out of the mine was growing in size again. It was a very controlled growth. You had to be voted in by most of the town before you could set up in the small town. So far the town went from 96 people to 120. Harry set up a small building to act as the sheriff station and put the mayor in charge of the four men he found to work as local law men.

By the end of the second week in November Hermione and Abby had the magazine tube expansion enchantment working and they now had 90+1 rounds of .45-70 at their disposal in their lever action rifles. They also went through and did the same for the deputies rifles. They now had 140 rounds of 44-40 loaded up and ready to go.

A few days later found Harry and Neville flying around the great basin southwest of Hamilton. They were there for three reasons. There were reports from Hamilton of two mountain trolls roaming the forest. They were also there to gather food and firewood. It was a Thursday the second week of November. And in the last week the temperature went from low 50's outside during the day to cold mid 30's during the day and low 20's at night as winter approached the desert mountain town of Eureka. People started getting up earlier to cash in on what little sunlight there was. After sunset Eureka looked like a ghost town with people rushing from one place to the other trying to stay warm indoors. Harry and Neville spent the last few days going around the town checking to make sure everyone had wood or coal burning stoves. They also made a list of the elderly and less well off and made sure the sheriff's deputies started checking up on them.

As they flew around the top of the forest looking for the trolls they spotted a lot of downed trees. They each had a canvas sack, as they spotted the downed trees they would shrink and summon them into the bags. The two trolls were not that hard to find. They were huge. Bigger and fatter then the trolls there were used to. Harry pointed them out and they flew in closer with their dragon rifles. Two shots later and the trolls were missing heads. With the big threats down they went looking for game animals. They bagged ten deer, six wolves, three coyotes, and close to a hundred rabbits in the hour they set aside to hunt. They took all of the game using head shots and once the animal was down they turned it into a coin and put it in the bag. They went about collecting more trees after the hunt as the sun started to set.

In the end they gathered 150 very big pine trees. They got a good half that number just by grabbing the fallen trees. They took the trees and game animals they bagged to the farm where Kate cleaned and skinned the animals as they used cutting charms to chop the tree down to firewood. Harry used the goblin refining charms on the loose tree branches and pine needles and turned them into 15,000 green hockey puck sized coals that turned out to be more efficient in heating a room then the fire wood itself. One puck burned for hours and threw off a lot of heat. They went around handing out big bundles of firewood, pine pucks, and packages of game meat. Even with every house and business getting a big bundle of wood and 10 pucks they still had a good pile of wood and pucks left over.

The next day they gathered the rest of the fallen trees and game. This time Harry didn't bother with cutting the wood. From the testing they did the night before Harry knew the pucks worked better than the firewood, they were easier to store, and it gave off a pleasant pine scent. Harry summoned all the pine needles and fallen branches into a big bag and added them to the 25 fallen trees and the leftover firewood from the day before. He cast the spells and they ended up with 105,000 pucks. They handed out 120 pucks and game meat to every house and store in Ely. They stacked the rest of the pucks in expanded trunks and left the trunks in the general stores in Eureka, Ely and Hamilton with signs saying free fire wood. Harry's pucks were a huge hit with everyone. The fact that he was giving it away for free was even better.

A few days later Harry checked the gold and silver brick stash they had. So far refining the ore that came out of the two mines was a great job for Harry and Neville. They had been doing it for three weeks and so far they were averaging 11 silver bars, and 2 gold bars a week from the Williamson mine and 5 gold bars and 7 silver bars a week from Hamilton. All together that was 1,800 ounces of silver, and 900 ounces of gold. At market value that was $21,000 in silver, and 21,600 in gold. Not bad for just casting a spell every few days. They were also gathering a huge supply of lead, iron, copper, zinc, and tin. So far the airship fund was up to $256,000 because Hermione set aside $100,000 in gold as a nest egg. The next morning they sat down to breakfast and Harry had a grin on his face.

"The ship fund is up to $256,000 again. When I portkey to Salt Lake City today I'm going to ask around the docks and see if I can lock down a price for a good sized ship that's fast. Maybe one with a steam turbine propeller assist. Those ships have a top speed of close to 300 miles an hour. I also wanted to see how much a small airship cost." Harry said.

"I saw one the last time I went to get the mail. I didn't have time to ask about it because it was headed east going fast, I mean fast. It was red and black, and it looked like a flying triangle. I liked it a lot." Neville said.

"I needed a few things from the magical district. I have a list. Do you think you can handle the shopping trip for me?" Hermione asked handing the list to him.

"Let's see what we're working with. Umm... I know a third of this stuff on this list." Harry said.

"How is it that you're this powerful and you have almost no academic knowledge of advanced magic. That's it. You're learning enchantments. You're too powerful to not know what all that stuff is. You're also learning how to make half the enchanting tools and ingredients like we did in school. For now I can pick you up a full kit." Hermione said adding things to the bottom of the list.

"Aww, Really Mia? Why do I have to know all this stuff? I didn't need to know it all this time." Harry whined like a small kid.

"Because you're too powerful not to know how to do basic enchantments, and once you know how to do it you can help me and Abby. Plus I think once you get the hang of it you'll really like it. I know you, when you figure out how easy something is you use the hell out of it." Hermione said.

"Fine, but if I start to get too bored I'm out." Harry said.

"Deal, that still means I have to go with you to get everything on the list. Which means I have to push Hamilton's wards back one more day." Hermione said.

"I could go with him to get the things on the list and you can start on the wards. When we get back I can help you finish and Harry can go around powering the wards. Or make Neville power the wards." Abby said.

"You sure that's a good idea? You're a young, pretty girl walking around without a wedding ring? You better be armed and ready for anything." Hermione said.

"Is it that bad?" Abby asked. She never left the town so she really didn't have a frame of reference.

"I've been fine for the most part, but then again all I had to do was hold up my left hand if someone wouldn't leave me alone. One time I had to pull my colt and the guy walked away." Hermione said looking worried.

"Oh, so I sould carry my guns in the city?" Abby asked.

"Yes, in fact you should always have your guns any time you walk out of this cube. And you should always have your undercover rig with your 1911 on you as soon as you get up in the morning. It should be like putting on underwear." Harry said.

"I have my rig on, I almost never take it off. Like I said before, I'm never getting caught out without a gun again. And Hermione showed me the enchantments to make it silent and the magazine holds 100 rounds. I carry five of them in my bag." Abby said pulled her stainless steel 1911 out of the rig to make it visible before putting it back.

"Good, as for the other thing, I'm not going to leave your side the whole time we're in the city and I got another idea. What's your ring size?" Harry asked standing up.

"7, why?" She asked as he walked out of the room, he came back a minute later with a small bag. He dumped it out on the table and she saw dozens of wedding bands and engagement rings in all shapes and sizes.

"Pick a set and start wearing it when you leave town. If anyone gives you shit tell them your husband the marshal will be pissed if he finds out about this." Harry said.

"Are you proposing to me Harry?" She asked with a big over the top smile and hope in her eyes.

"WHAT!? No! It's just a ring. You know for cover. We just started dating and…" He trailed off as everyone laughed at him. "Fuck all of you." He said folding his arms.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help it. But I mean the queen Bee said it best, if you liked it you shoulda put a ring on it." She said laughing.

"Well I like you, but this is just a ring. So pick a set, we're burning daylight." Harry said.

"Are all of these rings from dead people?" She asked looking weary.

"No, in fact most of them are from thefts and robberies. Jewelry is a good way for bad guys to exchange money without having to carry money. A man boards a plane with a case full of rings and he raises no red flags. Jewelry, especially if it comes with an appraiser's document is easier to deal with. Would you rather carry ten of those rings or a case full of hundred dollar bills?" Harry said as she picked through the rings.

"In that case I'll take this platinum ring with the big square cut emerald and this small platinum band. This bigger platinum band has the same pattern." She said taking the two rings and tossing him the other one.

"I don't need the ring. I'm not being harassed by random guys." Harry said looking at the ring.

"Right, I just thought you might need it if people ask about it." She said with a smirk.

"Good thinking. We'll leave in a few minutes. Make sure you have your coat, and vest on, and make sure your colts are loaded and ready. Also bring your horse. We try not to ride brooms in the city." Harry said putting on the ring and clearing away the plates.

"Right, I'll be ready to go in a bit." She said rushing to her room.

Ten minutes later Harry was pulling on his coat and checking his four colts when Abby walked up werning dark brown dragon hide boots, pants, and corset vest over a white blouse. She had a long full length dragon hide coat, brown leather gloves, and a brown cowboy hat. She had her double gun belt on with the two colt single actions and a brown leather messenger bag.

"I'm all set." She said looking excited.

"Good, this it the portkey to Salt Lake. let's go." Harry said holding out a brass card. When she touched it they spun for a second and landed in a big marshal's station in the corner of the room on what looked like the second floor. In the opposite corner was a big cage with a few prisoners. There were two dozen desks and about ten people walking around the room. As soon as they landed they were greeted by a tall well built man in his early twenties with a square jaw covered in stubble. He had longer light brown hair pulled back into a ponytail at the back of his neck. He was dressed like the ten other men in the office, black suit, white shirt, black tie, and a double gun belt with two nickel plated revolvers.

"Harry, it's good to see you, it's been a few weeks." The man said with a nice smile and a deep voice.

"You too Clif, Clif meet Abby, this is her first time to your city." Harry said.

"Good to meet you Abby. I'm Clifford Copeland. I'm a deputy marshal here at the the Salt Lake Marshal station. I must say you are about the prettiest lady to ever grace our office." he said with a bit of a blush as Abby smiled at him.

"Hello Clif, I'm Abby… Steel." She said shaking his hand.

"Steel? As in…?" Clif asked looking at Harry with a small bit of fear in his eyes. The fact that he just talked to a married woman like that in front of her man and that man was Harry made most of the color drain out of his face.

"Relax Clif, Abby here is the prettiest lady to ever walk to this place, but don't let her soft exterior fool you, she's just as deadly as I am." Harry said patting the younger man on the back with a smirk.

"Right, still sorry Harry, Ma'am." He said looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

"Like I said, water, bridge, you get it, now are there any messages for me?" Harry asked.

"Um, yes! There are a few of them. I have them here. I also have the mail." Clif said handed him a few bits of paper and a big canvas sack that was sitting by his desk.

"Thank's Clif." Harry said taking the very heavy bag full of shrunken packages, shrinking it and putting it in his coat pocket. He took the three bits of paper and looked them over. One was a note from a magical junk shop saying they had a few items for him. The next note was from the Wells Fargo bank saying they had a shipment of cash and coin headed to Eureka for pick up. The third note was from the head marshal.

"What's this note from your dad?" Harry asked Clif.

"No clue Harry, he just asked me about twenty minutes ago when you or your brother were coming to get the mail. I said today and he handed me that note." Clif said.

"Right, Abby keep Clif company for a few minutes while I go see what this is about." Harry said walking across the room to the big office.

Harry knocked on the door and the voice inside said 'come in'. Harry walked in to see an older version of Clif which made sense because the nameplate on the desk read Chuck Copeland. He was a man of 48 but time had not been kind to him which was a recurring theme Harry noticed about all the marshals. He looked all of 68 with his grey hair and beard. He had dark circles under his eyes, and a weathered face. This was a man that earned his place as top cop through years of hard work, long hours, and carrying the worry and responsibilities of his men on his shoulders.

"You wanted to see me marshal Copeland?" Harry asked stepping into the office and closing the door behind him.

"Yeah, have a seat." The old man said in a gruff low voice that sounded like he gargled sand and gravel everyday of his life. Harry sat in one of the three chairs in front of the desk as Chuck sat up in his chair.

"Harry, do you know of the pack of werewolves that keep attacking small towns on the full moon?" Chuck asked.

"I've heard of them. They're the reason I have a job. They killed the last deputy marshal. They hit without warning, rip and tare people to shreds, and feast on them in the streets. They never hit the same town twice, and they are impossible to track down. Because of this pack everytown is freaked out on the full moon." Harry said dropping the bullet points of the case file.

"I Know where they are. Thanks to some information I got last night. They're in this city." Chuck said.

"No shit? Well what are we waiting for? Let's go hit these fuckers and put an end to this. I've got 6 boxes of silver tipped .45lc in my bag right now." Harry said.

"I would love nothing more Harry but unfortunately, I can't touch them." Chuck said.

"Why the hell not? If you don't mind me asking?" Harry asked.

"Well, because when they're not big dog beasts they are the the mayor's son and his group of friends. He made them his pack. Every month they collect a few more pack members. They are twenty strong now. They all live in a house together, and the mayor has the sheriff's deputies bring them things they want. Booze, food, drugs, and girls. On the night of the full moon they take them in the mayor airship to a town outside the state and let them out to do what they want. In the morning the airship comes and picks them up. Now, like I said, I can't do anything about these guys. The house is being guarded by sheriff's deputies and we can't just kill them. The deputies can't do anything because they are beholden to the mayor and the few that want to do something are afraid of the other ones that might tell their boss, the mayor. And we can't sneak into the house and just shot the place up because that will alert the deputies outside and then we're going to end up killing our friends. I was hoping you would have a suggestion." the marshal said.

"I could do this today if I just had the address of this house." Harry said understanding what this meeting was. For the first time since he got here he felt like an operative again. How many times did he meet with someone like this?

"Funny thing about that I don't know what house it is, if I did it would be on my head if I told you. But what I can tell you is Jimmy's BBQ shack in east low town make a damn good BBQ beef brisket sandwich." The Marshal said locking eyes with Harry as he stood up.

"I'll have to go check that place out for lunch today." Harry said nodding and standing up from his seat.

"Good. The sooner the better. Jimmy's beef is too good to pass up. In fact, here's some money for lunch, this one's on me." He said handed him a small coin bag that felt very heavy.

"That's okay Marshal. I'll pick up the tab on this one. I owe it to the man that had this job before me to pay for this meal. But I will make sure I use this for that man's family." Harry said walking out of the office.

He waved to Abby and she followed him down the stairs, passed the front desk and out into the bustling street in front of the building. From here you couldn't tell it was a walled city. But it did feel like a crowded city. Like Manhattan the streets and sidewalks were packed with people and horses trying to get somewhere. After spending a month in Eureka which very much had a small town feel to it, this place felt like a big city. Most people would feel claustrophobic but she relished in the feeling of being surrounded by people. There was just over a thousand people in Eureka and there had to be about a half that many people on this one street alone.

"So what was that about back there with the marshal?" Abby asked as Harry pulled out a small toy black marble horse and set it on the ground. He tapped it with a finger and it expanded to a big 18 hand black stallion with a black leather saddle with brass buckles.

"He was giving me a good place to have lunch. We'll head that way after we stop off at the magical district to handle the things on your list. But before all that let me give you the rundown. Were in the heart of the city. This is called old town or high town. The original city was smaller then it is now. As the city got bigger they expanded out like flower petals from the main city. They made four major branch off cities and then they connected them and filled it in the gaps forming north, east, south, and west low town. For the most part low town is mostly housing and a few shops. Almost all of the things we deal with are in old town. Like the the main branch of the Wells Fargo bank which is just down the street from here and it's our first stop." Harry said hopping onto his horse and she expanded her matching stallion.

"Then we'll head to the magical shopping district?" Abby said hopping up onto her horse with ease and riding up next to him as he trotted out into the street and moved with traffic.

"Yes, it up this way a bit about twelve blocks from here. It's a row of shops on one street that make up the magical shopping district. I have to stop off at a junk shop on that street. Then we can search for the things on your list. After that we'll head east to the airship docks and then we'll go further east to East low town to have lunch before we leave." Harry said.

"Why are we having lunch here if it's the last thing we're going to do? Why not portkey back and eat at home?" Abby asked as she watched him for his answer.

"Because I owe a man and his family a debt and eating at this place will cover that debt. This is the bank." Harry said riding up to the bank and getting off his horse.

"That's cryptic." She said with a smirk.

"Abby, trust me, the less you know the better." Harry said watching as a group of five men walked into the bank with bandanas covering their face. "Shit." He said shaking his head.

"What?" she asked.

"Pop back to the marshal's office and tell then the bank is being robbed." Harry said.

"You're kidding?" Abby asked hopping off her horse.

"I wish I was. Go now." Harry said pulling a colt and rushing up to the door.

He peeked in and saw four men with guns out in the lobby controlling the small group of tellers and the two guards who were both on the floor bleeding from head wounds. Harry popped to the back of the building and unlocked the back door with a spell. He opened the door and slipped inside. He found the other man forcing the bank manager to open the vault. He slipped up behind the man and stunned him by touching his head.

"Harry? THank god." Stan the bank manager said relaxing when Harry showed up.

"I got your note, I'm here for the pick up, I'll get it in a second." Harry said as he bound the guy he stunned.

"Good luck with that." Stan said.

Harry ghosted up to the door and watched the guy on this side of the bank lobby. When he came over to see what was taking so long Harry stunned him and pulled him into the room. He bound him and peaked out the door. The other three were looking antsy. This was taking too long. Harry had a few options here. He could try to stun the rest of them or he could shoot them all from the doorway. He got an answer a second later when the Marshals announced themselves outside. The three men each grabbled a hostage and held them up in front of them. Harry slipped out the door into the lobby and stood behind a column. He rolled around the the column and stunned the two men closest to him. By the time the last one saw the red flashes he too was downed by a stunner.

"THis Is Marshal Steel! All Clear!" Harry called out as he bound the last three men. Cliff and three other marshal came in through the front doors with guns up.

"I see you did all the work." Clif said.

"Most of it." Harry said walking over to the two downed bank guards and running scans on the two men before closing up there head wounds and waking them up with a spell. Both men shot up but Harry calmed them with a hand on the shoulder.

"Relax. You both took a good knock to the head. You should both see a healer." Harry said.

"The robbers." One of the guards asked.

"I got them, all five of them." harry said keeping them all calm as he stood up.

"Cliff, You have a half a dozen witnesses, two guards, and the bank manager to give you a statement of events. This is what happened from my perspective." Harry said making a rolled up parchment with a written account of the robbery from his point of view.

"Thank you Harry." Clif said taking the parchment and looking it over.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have a bunch of things I have to do before noon and this little bit of excitement took ten minutes out of my day that I just didn't have." Harry said.

"I understand Harry, you can head out as soon as you get the bank bag." Clif said with a nod.

It took a few minutes for the bank manager to get the vault open and to hand over the three canvas bank bags full of cash and coins headed to the bank in Eureka. He shrank them and put them in his bag and then they were off. They headed north a dozen blocks and then left for two more before they came to an archway declaring the area was the John Smith district. The street didn't look that much different from the street before but it was more alive. You could feel the magic in the air. She looked over at Harry and saw him with his head tilted back and his eyes closed.

"You like it here Harry?" She asked with a smirk.

"You can taste the magic in the air. For someone on the mage scale as high up as I am when you get this close to a source of power it's euphoric. Everything you're looking for should be in this district. Lead the way." Harry said waving at the stores with signs proclaiming what was inside. Unlike the alley this place was a bit more orderly. For instance, the potions supply stores were next to the caldron stores next to the a store that sold ready made potions.

It took two hours and a surprising amount of cash to to collect everything on the list. Harry had fun shopping. He knew it had less to do with the shopping itself and more to do with the company. Harry really liked Abby. He found a quiet kindred soul in the younger blond. And younger she was. There was no denying she was 23 years old. Not when you looked at her. But in many ways she acted older than him. She liked old black and white movies. The beatles and the stones. She liked to sit with him on the couch and read under a blanket. Harry on the other hand was still very much immature. He liked to goof off with his brother, mess with his sister, and generally be a clown when the bullets stopped flying. Abby very much tapped into his sense of fun and they spent a few nights dancing and partying at the casino in town. But as young as he acted Harry was not getting any younger. And the age gap, although not a big deal in the time they were in was a big deal for Harry. It didn't help matters when Neville joked that he was old enough to have baby sat for her.

Harry was having a good time with her and he felt the relationship moving forward at a good pace. That pace included sex at some point and Harry was hesitant about it. It wasn't the sex part really. That was something he was good at. It was the first time he stripped off his clothes in front of her that worried him. He was not 23. In fact he was a really beat up 36. He had a lot of scars. Big, ugly, nasty scars. He had been shot, stabbed, and blown up in the past. And no matter how good magical medicine was, it wasn't that good. The small patch of grey hair forming at his temples was not helping either.

That was why he was really looking forward to making a trip to Egypt soon so he could get his hands on the philosopher's stone buried in a pharaoh's tomb. It would give them all 100 more years, a small boost to power, and for three quarters of them it would take their age back by about ten years. It would also fix some of the damage done to his body over the years.

"Harry, are we going to have time to finish the trip?" She asked breaking him out of his head.

"WHat?" He asked following her around an enchantment store as she looked at prices.

"I asked if we still had time to finish the trip or if we had to go? You have something to do in low town at noon. That's in an hour and a half. We need some time in this store and you had a stop to make in this part of town and you wanted to visit the air docks. Are we going to make it?" She asked.

"We should be able to make it. It's not super time sensitive but I would like to get to the restaurant before one. What do we need from in here?" He asked.

"Well I've checked all the prices and this place has most of what we need at the lowest prices. It is a bit basic but Hermione did say she wanted you to make your own tools at some point so these will do for now until you're at a higher level." Abby said looking around the store.

"Hey Abs, is enchanting hard? Am I going to be bored out of my mind and want to kill my sister?" Harry asked.

"Not at all. With your power level, your attention to detail, and your steady hands you'll get the hang of it really fast and you'll be enchanting up a storm. For now we need to get you a full kit. Follow me and hold all of this." Abby said before she started staking things in his arms.

A brown leather tool roll, a small wooden tool box with a brass handle and locks, a box of small engraving tools, a box of bigger engraving tools, a case of small glass jars filled with glowing white powder, a case of little bottles full of glowing red oily liquid, a case of small brass bars, a magnifying glass on a small wood and brass tripod, a wood box with a small gold melting ladle with a pour spout, and a small flat gold box about the size of a pill box.

"Do you think you have enough?" He asked sarcastically.

"That's everything on her list but I think she might have forgotten to add this to the list." Abby said adding a small leather bound book to the top of the pile and leading him to the counter.

"A full kit? Someone must be learning. You know most folks by a kit piece by piece but I always tell them buy it all to start with. It's easier that way." The old lady behind the counter said.

"Yes. and you have such good prices compared to your competitors." Abby said as the old lady added everything up.

"That's because I make everything in house dear. Your total is $275." The old lady said.

"Fu...udge. $275." Harry said pulling out a bag of coins and handing the lady five $50 gold coins and gold $25 coin.

"It's a full kit dear. These engraving tools are all hand made and enchanted to be razor sharp for life. Also diamond dust, magical red brass, and dragon's blood don't come cheap." She said putting the coins in a lock box.

"I stand corrected, is that what all this is?" Harry asked looking at the little bottles.

"Yes, let me assemble the kit so it all fits into your bag easier." Abby said.

She unrolled the leather tool roll and filled it with most of the things she bought with a practised ease. She opened the small wood tool box and put the two cases of jars and the small brass bars in the bottom and set the leather roll on top. She added the book on top, closed the brass latches, and handed it to Harry who shrank it and put it in his bag. From there they headed to the end of the street and into a big junk shop on the corner. They entered the junk shop and they were in magical junk heaven. Abby looked around and saw old books, watches, tea sets, pens, and quills. She found a few nice things in the shop right off the bat like a green and white marble wizard's chess set, and a book on old enchantments. Harry however walked right up to the counter and greeted the older heavy set lady with a big smile.

"Hello Dolores. I got your note. What have you got for me?" Harry asked with a big grin.

"So many nice things. I've been lucky since you came in last time. We'll start off with this beauty." She said handing him a gold pocket knife. "Razor sharp and enchanted to stay that way. Also if you hold down the wolf's head the blade glows red hot and it can cut through steel. I have another knife with those same charms too. I got it from the same guy but it's bigger. A lot bigger." She said handing him a big bowie knife in a leather sheath. The knife had a black bone handle and a ten inch long two inch wide heavy blade.

"Nice, how much for the set?" Harry asked.

"$10 for the small one and $10 for the big one. I also got these." She said handing him a set of brass knuckles.

"Brass knuckles?" Harry asked.

"With a painful stinging charm. You hit someone with these and it will hurt. $5 for the pair." She said.

"I'll take them. What else. Come on Dolores, we both know you found something good. What did you find?" He asked.

"A traveling salesman stopped by with these." She said setting two small wooden boxes on the counter. Inside the boxes were wood and gold fountain pens. "They look like regular pens right? Hit the gold button." She said with a smirk. Harry hit the button and out shot a 35 inch tri-sided fencing blade with a needle sharp tip.

"How much?" Harry asked extending the other blade to make sure they both worked.

"$15 each. But this is the grand finally. A man came by with a gun collection. He said they belonged to his grandfather and he needed the cash. Now I didn't buy the story one bit because why not try to pawn them off at the gunshop? He knows I don't ask too many questions. But when I saw this gun I knew you would want it." She said handing him a wooden gun case.

Inside was a heavily modified Lemat revolver with a nice nickel finish and ivory grips. The two barrels were set inside a slab sided barrel assembly and both barrels were about six and a half inches long. There was a hinge under the barrel assembly and a schofield style latch at the top by the sights. He broke the revolver open and saw the cylinder was bored through and so was the shotgun barrel which meant you could flip open the gun and load 9 cartridges of 38 caliber and one 20 gauge shotgun shell. They also redesigned the grip to fit better in the hand.

There was more magic in the gun but that was all he could tell for now. The gun looked like I came from 1985 and not 1885. It had more in common style wise with the Dan Wesson PPC then the Lemat it started out as. The gun was chunky and a bit blocky, but it felt good in the hand and the heavy barrel assembly would eat up all the recoil of the .38 caliber rounds and most of the recoil of the 20 gauge. Harry had never been a revolver guy. But this gun, like the colts on his belt was beautiful. Nickel plated, engraved with colt style engravings, the grips were big and ivory but they fit the hand right.

In the case was a shrunken box of ammo he took it out and expanded it. Inside as about a hundred rounds of .38 long colt. But the rounds had red brass heads and the case looked longer. In fact it looked like a .357 magnum bullet. There was also a box of 25 brass 20 gauge shotgun shells as well. They too looked hand loaded. He plucked the over shot card off the front of the shell and dumped out the load in his hand. Packed inside the shell was a red brass slug and six buck shot bb's.

"How much, and did he bring in more like this?" Harry asked.

"$75 for the gun and that kid brought in 3 of them along with this rifle and this big shotgun." She said setting two more matching Lemat revolver boxes on the counter along with a winchester rifle in a leather case and a huge case with a very big double barreled gun inside.

Harry looked the rifle over. It looked like a run of the mill factory engraved nickel plated winchester model 1885 single shot falling block rifle. But attached to gun was a small silver spyglass with cross hairs and the sling had 20 very big rounds in bullet loops that radiated magic. Harry checked the caliber of the bullets and saw they were .50-110 caliber rounds. The last gun which Dolores thought was a shotgun was a 4 bore rifle. Harry had only read about these. He never saw on up close before. The gun was 30 pounds easy with a 26 inch barrel, and a lever locking system. He looked in the case as saw a cigar box with ten 4 bore bullets. Each round was six inches long and an inch and a half wide. The bullet weighed a quarter of a pound.

"How much for the whole load Doris?" Harry asked.

"$75 each for the three revolvers, I can give you the rifle for another $75, but the big gun is going to cost you $150. That's $450 for the guns and $55 for the rest of this." Doris said adding it all up on a piece of paper.

"These too." Abby said setting the wizards chess set, the old book, and a silver pocket watch.

"$545" Doris said adding the three things.

"Here, and keep it." Harry said handing her eleven $50 gold coins from the bag the marshal gave him. The small bag had 200 $50 gold coins. $10,000. Harry counted it during the shopping trip. He would give the same amount in cash to the wife of the deputy that died to give him a job. Harry looked at the bag before pocketing it and shrinking things on the counter to put then in his bag.

By the time they rode to the Air dock they had just enough time to talk to a few people about ships and prices before they had to rush off to East low town. They found Jimmy's easy enough. And as they walked into the restaurant Harry saw two deputies standing guard out front of a big three story townhouse across the street. Jimmy's was a barbecue joint in the plainest sense. They sold pulled pork, chopped beef, or sliced brisket sandwiches. They served it with a side of sticky mac and cheese, fried potato wedges, and a glass or bottle of beer. Harry ordered two brisket sandwich meals and two bottles of beer. It came to $5. They sat down in a corner table and started eating. Harry watched the house across the street. The food was good. The meat was slow smoked and covered in sauce on a fresh baked buttery roll. The mac and cheese was a bit greasy but very cheesy, and the potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. With some catsup they would be great. Harry ate slow and watched the house.

"Are those deputies guarding that house?" Abby asked.

"Don't know. Maybe. Hey Abs, you think you'll be okay for a few minutes? I need to use the can." Harry asked standing up from the table.

"Sure. I have beer and barbeque. I'm fine." She said nodding ever so slightly. Harry nodded back and walked away.

He slipped out the back door into the alley. He pulled on his invisibility cloak and cast a few charms on himself to mask his sounds and scent. He walked across the street and into the alley behind the town house. He scanned for wards and found a few. He took out a small black ring and expanded it to a six foot wide gateway. He floated it in front of him until it glowed. When it did he set it down on the ground and walked through the doorway without disturbing the wards. He thought about taking the ward tunnel with him but he cast a few notice me not charms around the area and snuck up to the back of the house. He cast a spell at the wall next to the back door that turned the wall into a one way mirror. He saw no one in the kitchen. He vanished the section of the wall and slipped inside before putting it back.

He pulled the Sig 226 from his undercover rig and ejected the magazine. He pulled a silver magazine out of his bag and put it in his gun. He chambered a 9mm silver jacketed silver dust round. It was DoM standard issue. They exploded inside of a werewolf's body and the silver powder inside the werewolf killed them instantly. He scanned the house. There were 24 people in the house. 20 werewolves above ground and 4 humans below. He checked room by room on the ground floor. He found all of the rooms empty except the parlor. There were two men and two women he shot each one in the head. The rounds impacted their skulls and blew them open with the force of the impact. They never even knew what hit them. He stalked room by room killing werewolves as he went. For the most part they were all still asleep. Like Adaven these animals like to party, fuck, and drink until the wee hours of the morning. The two cases where the men were up they never see it coming. The gun made no sound. The brass casing never made it to the floor before it vanished. All that was left in his wake were dead bodies with head wounds full of silver and bullet fragments.

When he got to the last room he took care of the biggest man in the house and his two women. He summoned any cash or gold into his bag as he made his way into the basement. As he suspected he found four frightened looking saloon girls in a cage. He stunned them transfigured them into coins and took them. He walked out of house two minutes after he walked in. He walked to an alley behind Jimmy's and dropped the transfigurations on the four girls and woke them up after ditching his cloak.

"WHat's going on?" One of them asked as they looked around confused.

"What's going on is you four were about to be Werewolf food or fun. Now you have two options. I can erase your memories of me and send you on your merry way with $100 each or I can send you to Eureka with that same $100. The choice is yours but I have to tell you that if you stay here then you might end up dead." Harry said.

"If it's alright with you I'd like to get out of here. They got a saloon in Eureka?" The older dark haired prostitute asked.

"They do and it's nice and clean. Also $100 goes alot further in Eureka then it does here. And Sam the bar keep is a good man that looks out for the girls that work his place. All he charges is rent for the rooms. A dollar a day I think." Harry said.

"Girls this is a chance to start over. Let's get the fuck out of here." The leader of the group said.

"We need to get our stuff." One of the smaller blonds said.

"I can do that for you if one of you comes with me." Harry said looking around to make sure no one was watching them.

"I'll go." The leader said.

"Okay, you three take a hold of this piece of leather and this note. This is a portkey. It will land you three in front of the saloon. Take the note to Sam the bartender." Harry said handing the three girls a note and a leather cord from his bag. When they were all touching the cord he tapped it and they vanished.

"Our saloon is a few streets over from here. I'm Sherry by the way. Thank you for getting us out of the house." She said.

"Good to meet you Sherry. Come with me. We're going to head into Jimmy's for a few minutes and then we'll head out. What I did today is not exactly on the up and up." Harry said leading the saloon girl into the BBQ joint. He held out the chair for Sherry and sat down.

"Harry, who is this?" Abby asked.

"This is Sherry. Sherry this is Abby. Now that introductions are over I need to watch the house for a few minutes." Harry said putting a small cigar in his mouth and lighting it with a match.

"Sure, the less I know the better. You look hungry Sherry would you like a meal? My treat." Abby asked.

"Please and thank you." Sherry said looking grateful to Abby.

"You know it's a good idea to get a few of those meals for the family and the deputies in Eureka. Get five of each meal with bottled beer." Harry said handing her a gold coin without looking up. He was looking out the window as he munched on his sandwich. He wasn't looking at the house but he was looking around the house.

"Sure thing Harry. I'll have them bag it all up." She said walking away from the table.

Harry sat at the table and watched the house for a ten minutes and when the guards didn't move his grin got bigger. He finished his meal as Sherry scarfed down her's. They rode up the street to the bell tower saloon and with a few mind charms Harry cleaned out the few small posesions the girls had and as far as the bartender of the saloon was concerned the four girls left last night and never came back. They portkeyed back to Eureka just after one and Harry handled the four girls. Sam gave them rooms and let them work in his place. Harry handed each one of them $100 and their things and left them. He dropped off the mail at the post office. He dropped off the bank bags at the bank and he was about to head home when he saw Smith's shop. He walked in and Smith's face lit up.

"What can I do for my most valued customer and friend?" Smith asked.

"I wanted to show you something. I want your opinion on this piece I just bought it in a magical junk shop." Harry said pulling the Lemat revolver out of his bag and expanding it. "What do you think about that?"

"Would you look at that." Smith said popping open the latch and looking at the cylinder.

"Yeah, that's what I said. The cylinder is custom. I'm not sure what type of round it takes, but it looks like a longer .38. The shotgun barrel is intact and it was cut to accept a 20 gauge brass shell. The ammo is in the box." Harry said expanding the ammo box.

"Yes, it's been gapped and bored to take a brass shell. And this looks like a custom job. A longer .38 brass with a brass bullet nose. Heavy too. And this is a big load of black powder. This cartridge must hit like a train." He said loading up the gun with nine of the .38 XL cartridges. He took one of the brass shotgun shells and put it in the fat tube in the middle.

"So it's nine shots of special extra long .38 and a 20 gauge canon. Now that's some fire power. Especially after you make me some extra long .38 with your smokeless gunpowder." Harry said.

"Have you shot it yet? You want to try it out back?" Smith asked with a smirk.

"You have a range?" Harry asked.

"Sure do. My land backs up to the mountain. Flip the sign and lock the door." Smith said and Harry locked up and flipped the sign on the door.

He led Harry through the back room where his bed and kitchen was and out the back door to a fenced off open yard butted against the cliff face of the mountain. There were targets set up on boards in front of the rock wall. Smith took aim with the Lemat. He made sure the hammer was flipped up and pulled the trigger. The gun shot flawlessly like it came from the factory and the .38XL kicked like a .45lc. He cocked the hammer and flipped the pin down. He pulled the trigger and the gun bucked in his hand as he blasted a target with the buck and ball shot. He broke open the revolver to put in a new shotgun shell and the two spent casings shot out like a shotgun extractor which scared the shit out of both Smith and Harry.

"How the hell did they get it to do that? How did it know to only extract those two chambers? And who would have thought to change the handle like that? It's way more comfortable. This gunsmith was a Goddamn genius!" Smith said reloading the gun and handing it to Harry. Harry fired it a few times and loved it. He tried the shotgun shell and it kicked like a mule.

"Man this thing is great." Harry said.

"I would love to strip it down and figure it out." Smith said.

"If you studied it could you make more?" Harry asked.

"I think so. As long as I can figure it out. Can you track down the gunsmith? How much did you pay for it?" Smith asked.

"I don't know if I can track down the gunsmith, it was sold to a woman that runs a magic junk shop it Salt Lake City. I can go back and asked if she remembers any details about the guy but I'm pretty sure these were stolen." Harry said expanding the gun cases. "I paid $505 for all of this." Harry said.

"A new 1885 Highwall in .50-110. And is that a 4 bore!?" Smith asked looking excited.

"It is. You think you could take a look at the rifles? Add anything you can think of to them. Also can you make more .38 XL and these buck and ball 20 gauge shells with smokeless powder?" Harry asked.

"The ammo I can make easy, especially if you make the casings for it. All I have to do is add the primers, smokeless powder, and bullet nose. I can sell you 50 rounds for $1.50 if you get me the casings. $3 if not. As for the revolver, I can replicate the design easy enough, and I can smith the cylinder and shotgun barrel but this extractor I don't know. I'd have to take it apart and see how it works." Smith said.

"I'll make you a deal, I'll try to track down who made it if you try to replicate it. Do you have any Lemat revolvers in the shop? I think I have like five of them back at my house." Harry asked.

"I have one and it's beat to shit. I've had it for a while and I've been meaning to fix it up. This looks like my next project." Smith said.

"Well if I get you a box of guns can you make me a bunch more? What's the cost for an order like that?" Harry asked.

"Well if you get me the guns and they're in a decent shape then I could probably do a job like that for $25 a gun. But for that price I'll make repairs to the guns, refinish them, add nicer handles, add precision rifling, and I'll throw in the unbreakable charm too. I can't make any promises on the extractor though. It might come with a custom made scholfield type deal." Smith said.

"I'll start tracking down guns. I want a few of these. This is a lot of firepower." Harry said.

"And I'll get to work on this one and everything else." Smith said shaking Harry's hand.

"Oh before I go. Here let me get you some shell casings to work with." Harry said. He pulled a 25 pound brass bar out of his bag and used the goblin spell and turned the bar into bucket of 2,500 shiny new brass .38 XL casings. "There, that should last a few weeks." Harry said heading out of the shop and into the cube. When Harry showed Neville the Lemat he wanted it. Harry handed him the other one and he all but hugged him to death.

"I figured we'll both carry a pair of them and a few speed loaders as our main guns and our original pair of guns as our secondary guns. That's 18 rounds of .38lx, 12 rounds of .45lc, and 2 20 guage shotgun shells. With speed loaders we could change out 9 rounds in seconds." Harry said.

"You thinking something like moon clips or speed loaders?" Hermione asked.

"Loaders. The spring operated loaders like this." Harry said melting a piece of steel and turning it into a 12 inch base plate with holes and 12 spring loaded speed loaders 2 inches wide.

"Nice work." Neville said.

"Let's hope it works." Harry said taking a hand full of the .38xl rounds in his hand and filling the 9 round holes with bullets nose down. He took one of the loaders and pressed it down on the 9 rounds and the 9 rounds clicked into place. He lifter the loder and the rounds were held tightly. He opened the gun and dropped the loader in and with a click of the center the 9 rounds dropped into place.

"So cool. Make me one and two dozen loaders please." Neville asked playing with his new gun.

"Me as well, I want a set of guns like this." Abby said.

"We need to get Smith more revolvers so he can make the conversation. We have a few in the trunk but we need to go find more." Harry said.

"Why don't you goblin magic them up like the speed loaders?" Abby asked.

"Good question." Harry said scratching his chin. He emptied out the gun. And floated it in front of his face. He ran a few scans on it. He understood each part and screw but the revolver was too complicated to just make.

"I have to take it apart and make each piece one at a time. Well I found my next project. Taking this gun apart sucks." Harry said setting the gun on the table and pulling out a small wool blanket.

He laid it out and with his set of gunsmithing tools he took his new toy apart down to every screw. He took the handle part of the frame and looked it over. He took a big 25 pound bar of steel and cast the spell. He made ten more frames. They looked exactly like the original and his smile became an evil grin. It took him the better part of the afternoon to manufacture all the parts to make ten of his new gun. He handed everyone a kit of parts and they spent an hour building the 11 guns. The new copies looked just like the master copy with the exception of wood grips instead of ivory. But they had finger grooves and they fit the hand better. The guns also had STEEL MODEL 1 on the barrel and a wolf's head in profile that looked almost like the house Stark crest. They invited Smith over for dinner that night and showed him the copies.

"That's amazing. I just wish we could replicate the ejection system." Smith said.

"Let me see that." Hermione said taking Harry's master gun and casting a few spells on it. "Got it. It's a simple rune string enchantment carved on each cylinder wall. This will take like twenty minutes to enchant. Harry this can be your first enchantment. All you need is your copy book, a number 4 tool, and table space." Hermione said.

"Cool. we'll tackle it after dinner. Smith, it looks like I won't be needing your services after all on this one." Harry said with a smile.

"I'll say. Your sister is very good. I bet she has my rune string for accuracy and strength." Smith said.

"I do, but I haven't used them on anything. They are very long strings and they have to be cut into all the important parts. It's very time consuming work." Hermione said.

After dinner Hermione helped Harry set up his work station.

"Now Harry, simple rune based enchantments like this are easy, and they're made even easier when you have a copy book. That's this book. All you have to do is cast an expansion charm on the master cylinder." She instructed.

"How big should I make it?" Harry asked pulling the cylinder out of his gun.

"Comically big. The bigger the better. This is going to be hard to get to." She said.

Harry turned the 2 inch wide 2.5 inch tall cylinder into a 40 inch wide 50 inch tall cylinder. She showed him how to copy the runes etched inside one of the chambers and had him shrink it back before he expanded the cylinder of a new gun. She showed him how to copy the image of the rune string to the inside of a chamber and how to carve it into the metal with the engraving tool. When he had all ten chambers carved she showed him how to power each rune string. When they all glowed and the light faded it was done.

"And that's it. That was a very simple enchantment. The enchantments we use on the Operative's guns are harder. They require a filling of magical metal, dragon's blood, and diamond dust. I'll show you how to make those later. For now you have more work to do. That took you just about fifteen minute to do and that was with me guiding you through the steps. I bet you can have the rest of these guns finished by the time you head off to bed in a couple of hours." She said patting him on the back.

"This was easy and fun. You were right." Harry said expanding the next cylinder.

"This was nothing. Wait until you can make something really powerful." She said going back to her work. The two of them worked in silence for the rest of the night and when he headed off to bed at half past ten he was done with all the guns. And he made a speed loader set for Abby and Neville along with new gun belts that had bullet loops for .38xl and .45lc.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: i just wanted to thank everyone that PM'd me and reviewed. it was nice to see a bunch of you are reading this story. it is the most fun i've had writing in a while. the game aspect of it all is what really makes it fun. i make a story, my players play through it, and i get to put some of the fun we have at each game session into each chapter. this story is still under performing compared to the rest of my Harry Steel stuff and i do want to close the loop on Investigator at some point. the thing is i've run out of ideas for that story line. so if your a fan of that story and you have any ideas where it should go don't hesitate to PM me. even if it's to just suggest a action beat or a mission to add. it can be anything but lets try to keep it on earth and not too out there. no Star Wars or Transformers. aside from that if you got something hit me up. i will also be putting up a temp chapter on that story with the same request.

Now to answer some world questions i got.

1) The Civil war is over. the Civil war in my weird west universe ended about the same time as the real Civil War. 1861-1865.

2) Lincoln freed the slaves and slavery is outlawed. there are many different races out west and with the rift openings out west people are less racist then they are in the east. when you see the horrors they have seen fighting over skin color really seems petty. as for why we haven't seen many other characters besides white folks, that's mostly because white folks still run things and the group mostly deal with the people in charge.

3) the rift opened right around the same time as the end of the civil war. 1864ish. it took almost twenty years to close all the rifts in 1883. it's 1885 in the story.

4) the population of the US in 1885 was about 55 million people in our time. the things that came out of the rift killed about half the population. everyone still alive lives in big walled off cities under wards to hide from the magical creatures that came out of the rifts.

5) the reason this story is full of gun descriptions and action is because 3/4 my group are a bunch of "Murder Hobos" that start to tune out if they're not folling dice and killing things. they practically live for the cool toys i can come up with for them.

6) as for why i go into a lot of detail in the story about all the gear is because i want to give people a better idea of how things look/what they have and how powerful or cool it is. with my players they get little cards with pictures and stats. that's hard to convey in the text. someone suggested i make a Pinterest page with all the guns and gear so they know what i'm talking about. i'm not much for the site but i will give it a shot.

7) i am open to Story ideas/game encounters from readers and fellow DMs. PM me with any ideas you have for encounters/plot points and i'll see if i can work them in.

A week later found Harry and Abby flying patrol over the roads to in Eureka county just outside Hamilton. It was the third week in November and the average temperature in the mountains of Nevada had dropped to upper 30's in the day and low teens at night. Alice had informed him with a smile that this was the coldest year she had ever seen in Eureka. The mining operation in both Eureka and Hamilton had slowed way down now for the safety of the workers. It had snowed overnight and there was a few inches of snow covering the ground.

"You know Harry, when I said I wanted to help, flying patrol in the cold was not what I had in mind." She said.

"You wanted to help, you're helping. Now keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel. We have a few things to look out for today. The Hamilton deputies said the Bank sent out a armored stagecoach to bring money and staff to the town. They wanted to open a small branch office in Hamilton to help the town keep track of it's funds. The stagecoach made it to Ely yesterday and hunkered down for the night because of the snow. They were supposed to head to Hamilton today. We have to watch out for them. They were already attacked on the road from West Wendam to Ely about 20 miles north of town by a gang of 6-10 bandits. I'm thinking another crew took over the hideout in the canyon. We have to check that out too. On top of all that a well armed scouting crew of ten headed off into the hills west of Ely yesterday and they never came back. They could have been taken down by goblins, bandits, undead, or we might run into any number of creatures today so look alive." Harry said.

"Right boss, it's just cold as shit today." She said pulling her wolf fur hat down over her ears tighter.

"At least the sun is out today. It was so overcast yesterday you could hardly see. We're getting close to where the surveying crew went missing." Harry said slowing way down and pulling out a set of small magical binoculars.

"See anything?" She asked scanning the area with her eyes.

"I see our stagecoach. They are just departing Ely's main gate. Let's fly down to introduce ourselves. We'll fly escort for them." Harry said putting away his binoculars. As soon as they started heading towards the red stagecoach they started hearing gunshots. They put on the gas and dropped down at them. As soon as they got closer they saw what they were shooting at. The stagecoach was at full speed as six big cave trolls hurled big rocks at them from a rocky cliff side hill.

"Fuck." Abby said as they got closer.

"We need to get their attention. I think the 45-70 rounds will penetrate if not we need to use the big gun. We really need something in the middle." Harry said pulling out his winchester. Abby followed his lead and they both started shooting at the trolls but the bullets bounced off the thick hide.

"It's not working Harry!" Abby called out as the trolls turned on them and started lobing rocks at them.

"Switch to the nitro rifle I made you and watch out for the kick. You are going to go flying back. Make sure the rifle is seated in your shoulder." Harry said ditching his winchester into his bag as he dodged rocks and pulled out his 500 nitro express rifle. He sighted in on the bigger one in the middle and blasted a foot wide hole in his chest. He flew back six feet. He got a second one before he had to dive out of the air to catch Abby who was thrown from her broom when she took her shot. Harry grabbed her as the last three trolls fled back into the small stand of trees between the two hills. He grabbed her by the arm until she could hop back onto her broom.

"Damn this rifle's got a kick." she said.

"I told you. Now hang back and go look after the stagecoach. I'll go take out the rest and meet back up with you." Harry said.

"I can help with the trolls." Abby said summoning the niro rifle where she dropped it.

"You'll help more by making sure the stagecoach makes it to Hamilton. Now go before they run into more trouble. And make sure you announce yourself." Harry said before flying off into the woods.

As he went he reloaded his rifle with two more big brass bullets. He found the three trolls hoarding around the mouth of a cave. Harry flew to a nearby tree and landed. He braced himself against the tree trunk and took aim. He blasted two of the trolls and the last one turned and looked right at him. Harry hurriedly broke the gun open ejecting the two spent shells, tossed a fresh round into the gun, and got it up just as the troll started to charge. He blasted the troll's head clean off it's shoulders and the body fell right at the base of the tree.

Harry hopped onto his broom and flew up. He scanned the area for anymore trolls as he reloaded. He found nothing more so he dropped down and checked the troll camp. It was a disgusting mess with piles of troll shit everywhere. He found a pile of trinkets from the humans they ate. Among the clothes and junk were broken guns and blades, a few coins, and a trunk with surveying and coring equipment. It was easy to see what happened to the surveying crew that was lost. Harry repaired the guns and things with a few spells before he boxed it up and headed back to the road. He found Abby flying a few hundred feet above the road twenty miles away. She was following the stagecoach and scanning for threats. He flew up next to her and saw the angry look on her face.

"Did they run into anything else?" Harry asked.

"No Sir." She said in a clipped tone.

"Is this some kind of roleplay game? If it is I'm kind of into it. It's a total power trip for me to be called sir like that. yeah , I'm kind of into it. If it not some kind of game then I'm lost as to why I'm in the dog house." Harry said.

"I could have helped you take out the trolls. I'm not useless." She practically yelled in a frustrated tone.

"I agree. You could have helped. If the recoil of the gun didn't throw you twice as far as it did me seeing as you're half my size. We really need to fix that by the way. The recoil not the size. I don't think you want to be 200 pounds." Harry said with a smirk.

"It's not funny!" she said but there was a smile playing at the corner of her mouth.

"No it is. You're mad because the only rifle strong enough to kill a troll was the 500 express. It kicks so hard it threw you off the broom. We kill three of the six trolls with you taking down one of them. By the way, that was a good shot. Center mass, right in the heart. But at the time I gave the fall back and defend order the other three trolls were on the run. At that point there were two missions. One was to kill the trolls the other was to protect the stagecoach. You were more suited to the second task. So I called the play and you followed. If you think it was an easier job than to hunt down the troll then you were right. This time at least. But it could have been worse. You could have run into an army of undead, a massive spider, a king snake, or another troll. As it is we have to make sure we don't run into any more trouble. Then we have to check on those bandits and tell Ely they're down a surveying crew." Harry said.

"You found the surveying crew?" Abby asked.

"I found their things and clothes. They were most likely last night's dinner for those trolls. We might have to supervise a surveying crew later. You wanted to join us in the shit, you picked a good day. Lot of action. Fucking zombies." Harry said diving out of the sky with his Lemat revolver in his hand. As she followed him she saw what he did. Ten zombies. Most of them had guns in hand and they were taking shots at the stagecoach. Harry dropped down and blasted them with his revolver. He got most of them before she got there and she took out the last three.

"Where do these things keep coming from?" She asked.

"Alice thinks it's a rift curse. If you die, you turn and there are a ton of ways to die out here. It's why they decapitated the bodies as soon as someone dies and why they burn their dead. But these free romers come from poor unfortunate souls that die out here in the wild. Every month Ely sees a few hundred people come through town. The same with West Wendem and Eureka. There are a half dozen small towns between salt Lake city and San Francisco. But if you don't make it to a town? Between the big spiders, wolves, coyotes, and the small deadly spiders, and snakes, not to mention the bandits and the desert itself you're fucked if you can't get to a town before night fall." Harry said as he summoned the guns and gun belts off the dead as well as anything valuable they had and hitting the dead zombies with a flame spell before they took off and headed down the road to watch the stagecoach.

It took another half hour to get to Hamilton. They waited until the stagecoach got through the main gate before they landed next to it. They greeted the driver and the four guards as well as the two bankers. Both men looked well put together and ready for a fight just like the guards. They were wearing long leather coats, heavy black canvas pants and vests. Both men had double gun belts with schofields, a double barrel shotgun and two bandoleers of brass shells across their chests. One of the men pulled a wand from his jacket and floated a heavy plate steel box out of the stagecoach. The box was one foot long, three foot wide, and one foot tall. There was something on the front of the box but Harry couldn't make it out. He floated the box next to the town hall and set it on the ground. He then hit it with and expansion charm and it grew to ten times it's size. It became a ten foot tall ten foot long and thirty foot wide heavy plate steel building with a heavy vault style door. In fact that was the only door Harry walked in and saw a second door. This one was a classic wood door with the Wells Fargo name plate. Beyond that was a small bank with a teller cage. Behind the cage was a bigger vault door and a door to what Harry assumed was their living quarters. They grabbed a few bags out of the stagecoach and the driver and two guards prepped for the return trip.

"You know boys I could get you back to Salt Lake City in a matter of seconds right? In fact I could have gotten the bankers and the bank here without you folks needing to go through the hassle of the trip?" Harry said.

"How are we going to do that?" One of the drivers asked.

"Magic. If you trust me I can do this now. We need to separate the horses from the stagecoach.

It took a few minutes but Harry stunned the horses, turned them into coins, shrank the stagecoach, and portkeyed them all to the marshal's station in Salt Lake city. The men were very disoriented when they landed. Harry helped them reattach the the horses and they were on their way.

Harry and Abby portkeyed to Ely after that and Harry had to break the news to the head of mining operations that the crew was dead. Harry had him gather up a new crew to head out when they got back before they headed out on brooms north of town looking for the bandits. It took a few minutes but they did find them hiding in a small cave between rock formations. Harry spied on them from under his cloak and met Abby around the corner.

"There are six of them. They are sitting around a campfire and they have a pile of loot they took from people they ambushed on the road. This is the first humans you've ever faced, if you want to hang back it's alright with me. There's no reason you have to kill anyone." Harry said drawing his two Lemat revolvers.

"No, I'm in all the way." She said pulling her two Lemats.

"Well still hang back a bit, you're first gun fight is going to be crazy and I don't want you shooting me. Stay behind me and when I pop out roll around the corner and get one or two of them." Harry said before he hugged the wall and walked a few feet to the edge of the rock wall. He held up his pinky, ring, and middle fingers and counted down before he rolled around the corner and shot all six men before Abby could get a shot off.

"No fare." She said.

"Be faster. Check the loot and see what they took, I'm going to check to make sure they're dead." Harry said going around kicking the dead men in the kidneys.

"Harry, why are you doing that?" She asked watching him. She got her answer when the guy he kicked jerked, tried to roll over and pull out his gun. Harry shot him in the back and the man groaned as he died.

"That's why. You shoot a man in the chest and sometimes he goes down. You hit the heart in the right place to cause massive internal bleeding. Sometimes you get them low, high, a little left or right and the fuckers try to take you with them. Normally I go for headshots, but when you're shooting at six men you take what you get." Harry said finishing his way around to the last man he kicked him and he groaned. Harry shot him in the back and he laid out flater. "4 of 6, not bad." Harry said summoning the gun belts and guns off their dead bodies.

"Harry, these bags and this trunk are not full of loot. These bags have food. Canned goods, salted meats, bottles of beer, and canteens full of water. The trunk has money, a big wad of bills and a bag of gold coins. But it also has winter clothes, furs, leathers, these are people's things Harry. And look at the horses. These are all different breeds and sizes, and most of these don't have saddles. Like they were attached to carts." She said putting it all together.

Harry knew though. He put it together already. It was why he knew these were the men they were looking for. He just wanted her to realize it too. Just like he left two of the men alive so he could execute them in front of her. It was a test to see how she dealt with the situation. How much it bothered her. It didn't bother Harry. He had very little in the way of morales. He had a code he lived by. He would never kill an innocent man. But a man that prayed on the week? Endangered the lives of others, especially children? Their lives were forfeit.

These men were small time. If left unchecked, they might have been taken out by the desert. They might have taken out so many innocent people that a bounty would be placed on their heads and men like him would come looking for them. They might have gotten the gang and the reward money. Or they too might have ended up dead at the hands of these six men. The way Harry saw it, these men fucked with innocent people and they were already dead. Someone was carrying a bullet for them. I might have been Harry, it might have been someone else. He could have waited a few weeks. In that time they might have had a reward on their heads. But that would have cost innocent lives. So he would take the money, coins, food, furs, leather goods and the horses. He would sell it off and pocket the money. That was his reward for doing the job before it became a job in the first place. One would think spending the money of dead people would weigh on him. But the truth was it represented the lives he saved.

"Box it up, while I stun and transfigure the horses for transport." Harry said turning the men into coins and moving to the horses.

"This is a small fur hat Harry, too small for me and I have a small head. This hat belongs to a child Harry." She said holding the hat in her hands and looking haunted.

"I know, box it up and let's go." Harry said stunning the horses.

"What do you mean you know? How did you know? I found the hat Harry, I found children's clothes. How did you know?" She asked.

"It was in the report." Harry said softly. "The stagecoach wasn't the only thing they attacked. This group must have set up camp here in the last few days. There was a small wagon train that went missing. They left West Wendam three days ago headed for Ely. They never made it. Two wagons and a cart. Twelve adults, three children. Ages 8, 5, and 2. It was two families. They were headed to San Francisco from Denver. They made it to West Wendam and died on the road to Ely. They fell to bandits on the roads." Harry said in a soft distant voice.

"And they're dead? How do you know for sure Harry? Maybe the children are still alive!" She said looking desperate for hope as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I did a scan of the area. I have been since we've been out here. There have been no living being outside of us besides these six. It's how I found these assholes. The only thing I can do now is hope they died by a bullet, that it was quick. I hope they didn't get eaten by anything. Life out here is cruel Abby. You ride with us and you see the very worst of it. This was a good day in my book. We helped the stagecoach get to Hamilton, we killed six cave trolls that made a meal out of the poor surveying crew last night. we found this group of bandits before they could kill any more people. And we're going to protect the next surveying crew as they do their job. By my count we saved eight people's lives today and we got justice for twentyfive more. We also made the roads safer for the poor bastard that can't afford a ticket on an airship." Harry said looking sorry.

"THat's so cold Harry!" She said losing her composure and sobbing. Harry held her to his chest as she cried.

"Abby I didn't plan this day out. This was Tuesday for me. It's why me and Neville take turns patrolling the roads. It's hard to see this shit everyday. That's why he gets to make a shopping trip to Salt Lake city. Remember last week when we went to the big city to do some shopping? That was fun right? That same day Neville got a distress call from Hamilton. Someone sent up a flare spell on the road. It was too far to see what it was. They called Neville and he flew over to check it out. It was a wagon train of 6 wagon and 5 carts. 67 people overrun by a pack of 9 big fucking wolves. They tore apart half the people in the three minutes it took to call for Neville. They went for the women and children first. Neville had to deal with that by himself that day. He escorted those folks to Eureka. They regrouped and headed out in the morning with 4 wagons and 3 carts. By the time they make it to the west coast they might only need one wagon." Harry said.

"This place is terrible." She said into his chest.

"Is it? Or is this just shitty in this one way? The world we came from had plenty of shitty places. And this is only slightly more shitty then it already was. You've played the oregon trial right? Did you ever make it? You studied history, the west is a dangerous fucking place. It makes or breaks you. Now why don't we head back to Eureka. We'll sell these horses and hand the dead bodies off to the marshal. Com on, it's almost lunch time. We'll get some hot food in you. Warm you up. It's cold out here." Harry said rubbing her back and kissing her on the side of her face.

"Yeah, some hot coffee sounds good right about now." She said pulling back and wiping her face.

They flew back to town and sold the 9 horses for $450. Harry ran into the marshal's office and put the dead bodies in a cart on the side of the office after taking off the heads. They headed into the cube and found Hermione working on a potion in a huge 150 gallon cauldron on the kitchen floor.

"You two are just in time for lunch." Hermione said with a smile.

"You cooked?" Harry asked eyeing the caldron.

"No, that's what you came back to do. Get on it, I have a taste for soup. Something warm and hearty. Like that loaded potato soup you made for the tailgate party we went to last year." She said working on her potion.

"Yes Ma'am, coming right up Ma'am." Harry said taking off his hat and guns.

"Don't sas me boy, get to work." She said with a smirk.

"What are you making? It smells like cinnamon and turpentine." Harry said pulling out his small stock pot.

"It's Pepper up. I'm making a muggle friendly version. It's cold and flu season and unlike 2016 the flu can kill you here. I'm brewing a big batch, this is enough for 3,750 doses, I'm going to bottle it up 10 doses to a bottle and hand it off to the general stores in Hamilton, Ely, and here in town. We almost had one death from the flu this year and more folks are getting sicker by the day. We need to nip this in the bud before we lose the whole town." She said.

"Good thinking. Does that stuff keep?" Harry asked.

"This kind does. It has a shelf life of three years. Don't worry this is not the only potion batch I'm making. This big cauldron full of potion cost about $65 to make. And that includes $50 for 500 ten ounce glass medicine bottles and corks that Neville just bought. You know I miss the days where you could just pick up the phone and have ten cases of lab grade glass test tubes with rubber gasket plastic screw caps delivered to your door. That's the way to store potions. That way we could water them down by half to dull the taste and make it go down easier. Dosage is easier too. You just take one test tube of potion. No muss, no fuss. As it is now we need to add shot glasses with a line so people know how much to take." Hermione complained as she worked.

"You do know we can make those right? The goblin charm can turn sand into glass. We don't have plastic but we do have aluminum and copper. I could make 5,000 flat bottomed test tubes with aluminum caps with a wave on my wand, it will probably be last thing I do today but I can do it." Harry said chopping ingredients for his soup as Abby made herself a cup of coffee from the french press.

"You think you can do it? It would be a lot easier. I like handing out potions in single servings. It take the guess work out of it." Hermione said.

"Sure. I'll do it when I come back from Ely this afternoon." Harry said as someone knocked on the front door. "Abby can you get that?" He asked.

"Sure." She said walking away. She came back a few minutes later with a sick looking Smith.

"My god man what happened?" Harry asked.

"I caught a cold. I've been sick for the last two days. I thought magicals weren't supposed to get sick?" He said with a sad smile.

"They're not, it takes a good strong flu to put us down which is what you have. You should be laying in bed under heavy blankets with a good fire going. I'm making Pepper up as we speak." Hermione said running scans on him.

"That's what I've been doing. I only came by because I managed to finish the next ten boxes of .38xl I owe you. Now I'm headed back to bed." Smith said setting a bag down on the table and pulling his heavy wool coat around him tighter as he turned to head out the door.

"Well now that you made the trek here you might as well stay for lunch. That potion should be ready in about ten minute. Go sit in my study. There's a fireplace in there. Add a few pucks and light it with a spell. And here take this with you." Harry said handing the man a mug of hot tea with a splash of brandy and honey in it. "It will warm you up." Harry said patting the tall thin man on the back as he walked out of the kitchen holding the warm cup and shivering.

"Come on beanpole I'll keep you company. We can raid Harry's firewhiskey stash." Abby said leading him out of the kitchen.

"Cold and flu season. It's a killer." Hermione said shaking her head.

They had lunch of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Just as they were finishing up lunch Neville came in. Harry set a plate in front of his brother before pulling on his gear and heading out with Abby following him. They flew to Ely and lead the surveying crew into the hills. They circled over head and kept a lookout as the team took core samples and elevation measurements. It took an hour all together and by half past two they were flying back home. Before landing Harry made a big sack and summoned sand into the bag. He repeated this process 10 times.

He didn't know how much sand it took to make glass but he made sure he had enough. He walked into his study with a 25 pound bar of aluminum and dumped out the 10 big bags of sand on the floor in a big pile. He studied the test tube he had in his med kit. It was a 70ml test tube with a flat bottom. He concentrated on the spell and the sand. He cast the spell and the sand floated up in the air. It turned white hot and when he waved his wand at the floor his study floor was covered in test tubes. He made 10 cardboard boxes with cardboard dividers. Each box held 150 test tubes. He used the pack spell and filled the boxes and there was still a big pile of glass on his floor. He made a few boxes to store the test tubes on their sides and packed the rest in those boxes. All together he had about 6,000 test tubes. He looked at the 25 pound bar of aluminum and cast the spell again this time it worked much easier. He had a big cardboard box full of loose caps. He floated it all out to the dining room where Hermione had the cauldron of potion and lab equipment. Harry set the boxes down and joined the assembly line. Hermione added the red potion to a rack of test tubes. Abby added water with a spell, Neville screwed on the caps, and Harry put them back into a box. It took them an hour to fill 3,748 test tubes. Neville flew the cases to Ely and Hamilton as Harry laid in front of the tv and passed out. An hour later Abby came by and dragged him off to bed.

The next day Harry and Abby headed off to Salt Lake City to get the mail. Harry had a message waiting for him from marshal Copeland. He knocked, came in, shut the door behind him, and took a seat. The whole time he was doing this the old marshal was giving him an odd look.

"What can I do for you marshal?" Harry said.

"You can do the job I paid you for." He said.

"WHat now?" Harry asked looking shocked.

"You heard me. I gave you a job last week. You took the coin, and I expected it to be done." The older man said looking none too pleased.

"I did do the job. I killed them all. Didn't disturb the guards or make a sound but they were as dead as dead could be when I left that house." Harry said.

"Then why are they still walking around?" The marshal asked.

"How? I personally put a fucking silver bullet through each of their heads. I rescued four saloon girls from a cage in the bassment. You can question them." Harry said looking shocked.

"Where you sure you got them? There can be no question they were dead." Copeland said sitting up in his desk.

"Marshal, if I'm sent to kill a man, the man fucking dies. They were were fucking dead. I used magical silver dust rounds. I literally put a one inch hole in their heads with a bullet that tore up their brains and exploded silver dust into their bloodstreams. They fucking died." Harry said.

"Fuck. Then I have no idea what the fuck's going on because the sheriff's deputies that are loyal to me said the guards are still on patrol around the house. They have seen them inside the house. They brought girls and boys for them to eat and fuck. They are still alive." Copeland said.

"Have they physically seen them walking around? Are they undead? You know as well I do that if left unattended bodies tend to get back up and walk around. But that can't happen. As I say it out loud I know it's not the case. I blew their head open for a reason. So it's something else. What I can tell you is this. You hired me to do a job, the job's not done yet. That means I got work to do. When it's done I'll come talk to you. Tell you what went wrong." Harry said.

"Harry, I don't know what's going on. I can't be connected to this, but if something really fucked is going on. Something really bad, then whatever it takes you get back to me and you tell me. I'll gather the whole team and we'll attack it together. And Harry, I'm sorry about that shit I said earlier. I picked you for the job because I know you can handle some bad shit. When you left here that day I knew the issue would be resolved. When I got word it wasn't I knew something was up. For a second there I thought that maybe you died. When word got back to me that you were still drawing breath I knew that wasn't the case. And if you weren't dead, then I thought that meant you pocketed the money and walked. I hoped that wasn't the case but it was the best answer I had. But even in my anger a part of me said that everything you showed me since you got here pointed to you being an upstanding guy. A man I could count on. I'm just happy to be proved wrong and right at the same time. I don't know what's going on and I can't warn you about what you're walking into. I would never ask you to keep going but you're the best man for the job. The only man I can think of for the job." Marshal Copeland said looking tired.

"Try not to worry marshal, I've walked into worse with less heads up, and with half the help I have on hand. I'll take care of it. Like I said, you paid me for a job, and I'm going to finish it. I killed 20 people in that house last week. Maybe this time it will take." Harry said standing up and walking out of the office. He walked over to Abby and looked at her with a calculating look. It was like he was doing mental math in his head.

"Can I help you with something Harry or you just gonna stare at me like a long division problem?" She asked letting her Texas drawl out. Harry smiled. He loved her Texas twang. She only used it when she was pissed, or she was getting there. Most of the time her accent was soft Bostan mixed with upper crust Northeast. But when she was pissed she became a true daughter of the great state of Texas. She didn't know it but she helped him make up his mind with her comment.

"I need you to do me a favor. Head back to Eureka, get Neville. He should just be heading out. If he's on patrol call him back to the cube. I need you to grab the ammo can marked silver Op. Mags and bring it and Neville back here. I'll meet you at Jimmy's place. Can you handle that?" Harry asked.

"I can. You need anything else from the house?" She asked in a serious tone. Once she saw he was letting her in she was on board fully.

"Yes, grab my spare invisibility cloak and my second mission bag from my closet. You're going to need it. Today might get crazy like yesterday. You up for some possibly fucked up shit?" Harry asked.

"I am." She said with a small nod.

"Look Abs, no bullshit, this could get really bad, if at any time I tell you to fall back, or portkey out, or any command like that I need to know you'll follow orders." Harry said.

"You don't think I can handle it?" She asked looking mildly hurt.

"No, but your job today is back up, if I tell you to fall back it's because things have gone tits up and you need to run, trust me I'll be running right next to you. If I tell you to portkey out it's because we all might die and I need someone to get the marshal and tell them what happened to us and where they can find our bodies. We have emergency portkeys but they might not work." Harry said.

"I understand." She said looking slightly shocked by his words.

"Good now go. I'm going to scout ahead." Harry said.

He waited until she portkeyed out before walking out of the office. He slipped around the building, pulled on his cloak and popped to the alley behind the house. He set up the ward gateway and walked up to the back door. No one was there. He walked around the house casting the spell and like before the first floor was empty. He cast the scanning spell on the house and found six people in the house. All of them felt like they were in the basement. He came around to the front of the house and saw five deputies guarding the front door and the street. That was three more than last time. He popped to the ally behind Jimmy's and walked around to the front where he waited for Abby and Neville to show up. As he waited he watched the house. It looked dead. The same as it did before and after he visited last time. But somehow, it felt darker. He was loading up for werewolf, but he knew they would find something worse then wolf in that house. Harry watched as Neville and Abby rode up to Jimmy's. He intercepted them as they were about to walk in and lead them to the alley behind the restaurant.

"Did you get the bag and the can?" He asked dropping his hood and casting privacy spells around them.

"I did. What's going on Harry?" Abby asked handing him the ammo can.

"Last week, marshal Copland gave me intel on the pack of werewolves that have been attacking the towns on the full moon. The alpha of the pack was the mayor's son. He and his buddies were hold up in the house across the street. The sheriff's deputies were guarding the house and providing booze, food, and girls for them. The pack was 20 strong. Last week while you had your sandwich I snuck into the house and killed them all. I freed the four girls they had in a cage in the basement and that was the end of it. Until the marshal got reports that the pack is not dead. There is movement inside the house. They had a shopping list of supplies delivered, and they got working girls and boys for them. Now either there are 20 undead in there, or something's wrong. I can tell you this now, the dark magic is pouring off that house. Now I doubt we're going to run into werewolves but these silver rounds kill anyone. Abby in the bag is an MP5K with a 300 round magazine full of magical hollow points. There is also a .300 win mag rifle, two Sig226's, a Remington 870 shotgun with a 60 rounds of buck and ball, and a fully automatic custom M4 with magpul furniture and 300 round magazine. There are 5 expanded magazines for each gun in the bag along with 10 frag grenades, 10 flash bangs, and a 20 inch razor sharp machete. Use whatever you're comfortable with. Take three of these mags, load one into one of the 226's and keep that gun on you." Harry said slinging his MP5K on under his coat and his M4 over his coat before he handed out extra mags with silver rounds. He pulled his Sig and changed the mag.

"Understood. If were clearing a house them I'm going to go with the MP5K." She said slinging the gun over her shoulder and pulling coat back on. She took a sig226 out of the bag, changed the magazine, and tucked the gun into her pants. Neville went with the same setup as Harry.

"Alright, let's roll." Harry said flipping up his hood and vanishing. The other two followed his lead and Harry walked them across the street.

Harry took them through the ward gate and vanished the back door. He walked in and scanned the house with his magic and his eyes. Nothing. He lead the group through the first floor and they found nothing. Even the blood had been cleaned from the parlor wall and couch. He checked the second floor and that's where they ran into signs of life. In the first bedroom on the left they found one of the werewolves he killed the week before shackled to the bed. He was undead, but unlike the zombies they were used to this one didn't look like he had much decay about him. For a week old corpse he didn't look too bad. He had a big scar on his forehead and he looked lost. Like he was brain damaged. On his chest were runes carved into his his flesh and the dark magic surrounding him was palpable. Harry shot him in the head and Abby took a look at the runes.

"This looks like necromancy." she said.

"Well I'm not leaving these guys around to be brought back again." Harry said turning the body into a coin and putting it in his pocket.

They found three more men with the same runes and undead but brain dead look in their eyes. On the next floor they found six more undead but these were up and walking around. They cleared them out with a few head shots and Harry made them coins. They headed into the basement and Harry noticed the difference instantly. There was a metal operating table in the room where a woman in her late forties and a man in his twenties were working on another dead werewolf. Both of them were wearing nicer clothing, white lab coats, and leather aprons. There was a rack of dead werewolves off to the side and there were four young men in the cage under some sort of sleep spell. Harry stunned the two and shot the man they were working on in the head. He made sure all the rest of the werewolves were dead. He turned them into coins and conjured two chairs. Neville helped his set the two would be Dr. Frankensteins in the chars. He tied them up and took off his cloak. He cast privacy spells around the room before he reached back and smacked the woman hard enough to wake her up.

"What's going on!? Do you have any idea who I am? I'm Constance Collinsworth!" She said looking indignant. Harry's next slap knocked that look off her face.

"Am I supposed to know your name?" Harry asked.

"I am the sister of the Mayor! You will untie me at once! I am a lady of high standing and you will not touch me..." She said before Harry smacked her again.

"First of all 'lady', don't take that tone with me. Second of all I killed all these werewolves last week and I come back to find you bringing them back from the dead. I don't appreciate the fact that you made me do the job twice. Now you will talk, and keep talking until I think you told me everything I want to know. If you stop talking, or I think you're jerking me around I'm going to hurt you, and I'm not talking about slaps." Harry said pulling out his knife out.

"When my brother hears abou...AWWW!" was as far as she got before Harry slammed the knife into her shoulder joint.

"You will tell me what you're doing, how you're doing it, and who knows you're doing it." Harry said in a cold tone.

"I'm using a life tap ritual to bring my nephew and his friends back to life after you killed them you evil pric...AWW!" Harry twisted the knife and separated her rotator cuff.

"How and who, skip the bullshit threats." Harry said looking bored.

"The life tap requires a sacrifice. I'm stealing the souls out of these street walkers and peasants to power the ritual. As for who knows I'm doing it, my brother and sister in law their advisor of magic, the Sheriff and half his deputies." She said.

"Right, you're under arrest for the murder of all these people you used in your ritual. And for practicing dark magic. And if those two things are not laws then I'll fucking put a bullet in your head. The same for the Mayor, his wife, and the fucking sheriff." Harry said.

"Good luck with that. My brother owns every judge in the city, and half the judges in the state. You'll never get a conviction. You're fucked. You take this to a judge and they'll toss your ass in the slammer for false accusation, and assaulting a member of the Mayor's family." She said laughing.

"That's funny, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Now who's your friend here and what's through that door it's got magic pouring off it." Harry asked.

"That's my apprentice. Through that door is the access tunnel to the Mayor's castle." She said with a smirk.

"Right let's try this again," Harry said twisting the knife and seperating the ball and socket joint until it popped causing her to scream. "Now what's in the fucking tunnel?" Harry asked.

"Undead, hundreds of undead guards. They protect the castle." She moaned.

"Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything at all? If I run into something and you didn't warn me I'll come back and finish what I started. I'm not fucking with you bitch." Harry said getting closer to her.

"No, that's everything I know. But you'll never get away with this. You'll hang for this!" She laughing at him as he backed up.

"You're right. Corrupt politically powerful people never get what's coming to them. But that's where I come in, I'm the legal grey area created to take care of people like you." Harry said pulling the knife out of her shoulder. He pulled his Sig226 out and put a round between her eyes.

"Harry how do you want to proceed here?" Neville asked.

"We do our job. Did you cast magic in the house? Anything with a wand?" Harry asked looking at Neville and Abby.

"No." Neville said shaking his head.

"No Harry. But what the fuck are we going to do? We can't kill the Mayor, his wife, and half the Sheriff's department!" She said looking freaked out.

"We don't have to kill off half the sheriff's department. We just have to drop the Sheriff. We didn't use our wands, it's impossible for these people to track our natural magical signature. We have guns that leave no trace. We're going to kill everyone on the list she just named, transfigure the bodies, and dump them in the desert for the spiders and coyotes to feast on. Or at least that's what I'm going to do. It's up to you two if you want to follow me or if you want to make an impromptu shopping trip in the city making sure to spend a lot of coin and be very visible so as to establish an alibi for where we were today." Harry said changing out the silver magazine for a regular expanded magazine full of magical hollow points.

"Well I'm with you until we get through the tunnel. I'll leave the stealth assassination to you brother. You're better at it then I am." Neville said copying him.

"Abs?" Harry asked summoning the coin purse and jewlery off Constance's body before transfiguring it into a coin and pocketing it. He shot her assistant in the head and took him too.

"I'll follow orders, what do you need me to do?" She asked changing out her mag.

"You got two options, start shopping now after you take these four out of here, or stick with Neville. It's up to you, either option will be helpful to the mission. Sticking with us will give us a backup gun, or going shopping now will further establish the alibi. There is no judgement or opinion on our parts. It's up to you." Harry said putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I think I'm going to stick around a bit. at least until we get into the tunnel a bit before I pop out. I also need cash. I'll take the coin purse you just stole." She said with a smirk.

"Good thinking. Here." Harry said handing her the small purse. Inside was a few hundred dollars in cash and coin.

"Okay, let's lock and load." Harry said transfiguring the four men into coins and handing them to Abby.

Harry stacked up on the side of the door. He waited for the other two followed his lead before he ripped the door off the wall with a spell. Inside was a store room with shelves of wine bottles, bags of grain, and strings of dried chillies and garlic. There was also a door to a tunnel that was left open and five zombies with cavalry saber in their hands waiting in the back of the the room by the door. Harry and Neville took them down with head shots so fast Abby barely got her gun up.

"You know you two are a real blow to my confidence." She said with a smirk as she followed them into the tunnel.

"Sorry, we'll let you shoot the next one." Harry quipped as he shrank the swords and put them in his bag.

Abby didn't have to wait long. There were five zombies waiting a hundred feet up the tunnel with swords. Harry tapped her and Abby saw them. She brought her gun up and dropped them with five quick head shots. Harry golf clapped before shrinking the blades and adding them to the bag. He had a feeling they were going to have a fuck ton of steel after today. It took an hour and a half to get to the other side of the tunnel. The tunnel had to be about 6 miles long. And they jogged most of it, only slowing down to shoot the zombies stationed every 150 feet up the tunnel. By the time the got to the door there were tired of killing the zombies. It got to a point that head shotting zombies and shrinking the swords was a grind. They had to have killed over a thousand of them. As they approached the door they could feel the wards of the castle above.

"This is where I leave you boys. I'm off to Dolores's shop in the magic district. I'll be that area for a while." She said.

"Good luck with that. Neville will be meeting you there in a few minutes." Harry said.

"I'm not the one that needs luck." She said pulling up the hood on the invisibility cloak before she vanished with a pop.

"So brother, once more into the breach?" Harry asked with a smirk as he pulled up his cloak hood.

Harry cast the one way charm on the door and they saw five more undead standing by the door. Like the rest they had swords in their hands. Harry vanished the door and they took them down with head shots before they could react. They found a hallway with two dozen doors. Harry cast the one way spell and fund a room full of undead. There had to be fifty of them in the 10x20 foot room. They were just standing there like they were waiting for orders. Like the rest most of the flesh was gone. These were long dead. They all had swords but some of them had revolvers in their hands. Around the room were crates and shelves full of things. Harry shared a look with his brother before he cast the one way charm on the door next to it and found the same thing.

"You know, this is getting ridiculous. I'm literally tired of killing these things." Harry said.

"It's a slog but if we leave these things unchecked then who knows what can happen." Neville said.

"True. I just wish we could light a stick of dynamite and toss it into the room. But the blast would alert the whole castle. It looks like we do this the hard way." Harry said pulling the half empty mag out of his gun and replacing it with a fresh one.

"The hard way it is." Neville said following his lead.

Harry opened the door, the wall sconces in the room lit and they took them down with head shots. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. They didn't move, they didn't blink, they just stood there waiting for them to blow them away. It was odd. Like they were in sleep mode and the door opening up was not the command to break them out of their slumber. Harry summoned the swords and the revolvers. They were old beat up colt navy cap and ball guns with cheap cartridge conversions kits chambered for the .38 long colt rounds from the colt lighting. Like the swords they were old civil war surplus guns that were beat to shit. Harry shrank them and tossed them into his bag before looking at the trunks and shelves. They were full of surplus .38 long colt ammo, guns, and swords.

"They got enough surplus down here to arm an army." Neville said shrinking a few crates of ammo.

"I think we should take all of this. This is too much hardware to leave down here. Shrink it all and take it back home with you. We'll talk it over with the marshal." Harry said shrinking the crates and handing them to him.

They moved on to the next room with a sigh. This was going to take a while. It took almost a half hour for the two of them to clean out the basement storage rooms full of undead. They figured out that the things just stood there so they started hacking the heads off with their machetes. They also shrank all the crates full surplus military hardware. But not all the crates were full of guns. Some of the crates had rough cast gold and silver bars. They left the food and wine but they took everything else. They made it to the stairs headed up to the castle and that was were they parted ways. Neville patted him on the back one last time before he jogged back to the tunnel and popped out. Harry checked the door and saw an empty hallway. He slipped through the door and made his way through the castle. Because the castle acted as the Mayor's office there were people walking around the castle going to meetings with members of the local government. To help facilitate this there were signs and arrows pointing to offices and there were name plates on each door.

He found the magical advisor to the mayor easy enough. He was in his office brewing a potion. Harry slipped into the room when his back was turned. He stunned him, tossed up a silencing charm, and tied him to a chair. He woke him up just long enough to make sure he was the Magical Advisor to the Mayor and to see if he was in on the undead plot, which he was. He stunned him again and turned him into a coin. He vanished the potion, took the very expensive looking potion's kit and the trunk of ingredient bottles. He searched the office for anything valuable and found a small sack of coins and cash in his desk and a gold engraved British Bulldog revolver with ivory grips. He also found a gun belt with a nicer colt navy cartridge revolver with gold engravings and ivory grips. He slipped out of the room and made his way upstairs to the residents.

He had to get by two guards, but they were sloppy in their stationing. He was able to slip past them because they left a gap. He looked around the second floor and found a few people but not the mayor or his wife. He moved up to the third floor and found the wife in a bedroom. Harry stunned her, transfigured her into a coin, and searched the room. He found a few small gold bars and jewelry in a box on her dresser. He also found a knife roll full of silver and gold daggers in a drawer by her bed along with a gold bulldog revolver and a box of .455 caliber cartridges.

He spent a few minutes looking around the bedrooms starting with the mayor's room next to his wife's room. He found a few more small gold bars and loose cash. He also found more guns and a pair of rapiers with silver handles and baskets with a ruby in the pummel. In the advisor's room he found a library full of old books. He packed them all in a trunk and put that in his bag along with a second trunk full of potions ingredients. In Cassandra's room he found more books along with three trunks full of gold and silver jewelry, teeth, pocket watches, and revolvers. Harry knew what these trunks were, he had a few like them, they were the belongings of dead men. Loot. Harry took the trunks. He found stationary in the room with the seal of the mayor and penned two quick notes. One was to the mayor from his sister telling him to meet her in the basement, the other one was to the sheriff calling him to the castle for an emergency meeting. He walked back downstairs and found an office worker. He put him under a confundus charm and had him dispatch a rider to the Sheriff's office to deliver the note before he had him head to the bathroom on the first floor off to the side by the basement door.

Harry waited for twenty minutes for the Sheriff to come down the stairs to the basement. He stunned him and transfigured him into a coin. He walked into the bathroom and found the office worker sitting on the toilet. He handed him the other note and ordered him to forget the last hour after the note was delivered. Harry again waited at the bottom of the staircase for the mayor who showed up with two sheriff's deputies. Harry stunned all three of them and turned them into coins before he walked back to the tunnel and portkeyed back to the cube.

He flew out to the forest south of Hamilton. He dropped the transfiguration on each coin and executed them one at a time. He questioned the mayor about the undead under the castle and all the firepower. It was a plot to take the town by force if necessary if he ever got voted out of office. They were building an unstoppable army of undead. The day he lost an election would have been the day they unleashed hell on the city. That was the reason his son was turned into a werewolf in the first place. That was another option they were looking into. They didn't know it was him that killed the pack a week ago, they suspected a group of deputies of doing it and the Sheriff was conducting an in house investigation into it. After he was done he summoned anything of value off their bodies and flew back to the cube. He dumped out his bag and portkeyed back to the city.

He met up with the other two and spent some time shopping. It was just after noon when he found the pair of them in a gun shop trying to sell of a few old revolvers they found. By two he spotted a few deputies riding around the city looking panicked. Harry slipped away from the group and popped back to the marshal's office. He sat down with the marshal and told him what happened.

"Killing is a dirty job Harry, sorry I had to tap you for it." Copeland said pulling a bottle of scotch and two glasses out of his desk.

"I don't mind killing if it's for a good cause, stopping a corrupt mayor and his undead army is a good cause." Harry said taking the drink the marshal poured for him.

"I'll say. I had no idea it was that bad. Still this is going to be a major shit storm. The mayor, half his cabinet, and the sheriff are all dead. This city is going to fall into complete chaos in the next three weeks. The line of succession falls to the treasury secretary I think and he's a number crunching fool. I have a feeling I'm going to be running this city for the next few months until we can hold an election. Say Harry, how would you like to be mayor?" He asked with a smirk.

"Fuck no. I'll keep my job thank you very much." Harry said laughing.

"Didn't think I could get that lucky." He said laughing too.

"Well, keep trying. I'm sure you can find someone to take the job. If you'll excuse me I'm heading off home, I need a good plate of meat and potatoes and a comfy chair. Thank's for the drink." Harry said finishing his glass.

"Any time Harry. I owe you big time. Don't think I don't know that." Copeland said standing up and shaking his hand.

"If you ever need me you know where to find me." Harry said walking out of the office. He saw Neville and Abby waiting for him and they portkeyed back to the cube together. Harry ditched his coat and hat by the door. He took off his gun belt and shoulder rigs and hung them on the chair before he took off his vest. He looked dead on his feet.

"You look beat." Abby said looking him over.

"I feel beat. Between all the magic I used the day before and all the small spells I did today I'm tapped out." Harry said.

"Well then you'll be happy to hear that I'm cooking today. I was thinking pot roast for dinner, and for a late lunch how about I heat up some of the soup from yesterday and a bacon sandwich?" Abby asked.

"Sounds good. While you get the going we need to sort through all this loot. I think for safety sake we have to melt down all jewelry, gold, and all the swords we got today and turn them into bars. We don't want any of that on us. Hermione did you get a chance to look at the books and potions stuff I got?" Harry asked.

"I did, you got a lot of really old books, some of them I've never seen or heard of before. Those two trunks were master's level potions kits. We're pretty much set for a good long time on potions ingredients." She said.

"Good, Neville can you handle the goblin charms today? I'm running on empty." Harry asked.

"Yeah, I haven't done anything in a few days. You want to melt down all of these swords?" He asked opening a few crates off the top of a big stack of 20 crates with 60 swords in each crate.

"It's good steel and the less loot we have lying around the better. As it is we have about 2,600 swords. That's an ass load of steel. Not to mention the steel scabbard, the leather wrapped wood handle, and the brass guard. We're looking at 3 pounds of steel, a half pound of brass, some wood and leather from each one. Turn them into 25 pound ingots. We'll see if we can sell off the crates of guns. How many do we have?" Harry asked.

"We collated 20 crates with 40 guns to a crate along with the 160 guns we took from the zombies. We're looking at. 960 colt navy cartridge conversion revolvers. We also have 100 crates of .38lc ammo. Each crate has 1,500 rounds. That's 150,000 rounds of .38lc. Unless we're arming troops for battle then we have more stock then we will ever need. We have to sell this stuff." Neville said.

"We can try to sell them, but no one want's these guns, it's why they got them at such a discount. You can buy one of these guns for $8-$10 in any gun shop and the ammo goes for $.50 a box. That's what they're selling for retail. I doubt we can get $3 a gun for them if we sell to a gun store, and that's if we can find a store willing to take this much stock off our hands. We'll hit them with a repair spell to see if we can bring them back to a factory new fit and finish and keep um boxed up. Maybe we can hold on to them for a few decades and sell them as anteaques. If not we'll melt them down into steel ingots. As for the ammo, save a few crates off to the side and we'll hit the rest of it with the charm. We'll have bars of brass and lead, and barrels of black powder. I can do it tomorrow if you like?" Harry asked.

"If you don't mind? I'm good but I don't trust myself with that much black powder." Neville said with a smirk.

"I totally get it. Just work on the crates of loot and swords for now. Also separate out the cash and coin, and turn anything leather into a big sheet of thick tool leather. Tomorrow when I'm feeling more powerful I'll deal with the ammo. For now I need to help get dinner started." Harry said heading off to the kitchen.

"I have work to do." Neville said floating the crates of swords out of the room.

"I'll help, I want to learn the spells too." Abby said following him out of the room with the crates of loot.

That night at dinner Neville showed off the the three trunks of full of shrunken 25 pound steel bars, they ended up with 295 of them from the swords. They also ended up with 75 brass 25 pound bars, 2300 wood gun handle scales, and a big 5x25 foot sheet of leather. From the melted down loot they got 8 gold 100 ounce bars, 10 silver 100 ounce bars, and 2 more 25 pound brass bars and a 25 pound steel bar. They also had a 5x10 foot sheet of thick tool leather.

Harry would deal with the rest the next day. They all headed off to the living room and watched a movie, the girls got to pick it and they ended up with You've Got Mail. Harry loved the movie but he still passed out halfway through it. Abby woke him up and dragged him off to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

Harry slept in the next day. He got up close to noon and made brunch. He baked fresh scones. He made light and fluffy southwest omelets filled with green peppers, onions, steak, and cheese. He also made waffles, bacon sandwiches, and chicken salad sandwiches. When Neville and Abby came in from patrol and Hermione came back from visiting with Alice they found a table full of food and a happy Harry setting down and tray of orange juice.

"Nice spread!" Neville said taking a seat at the table.

"I got a late start so I thought I'd be productive." Harry said grabbing the bottle of champagne he was chilling in an ice bucket and popping the cork.

"Harry where did you get orange juice?" Abby asked.

"I got a sack of oranges from Salt Lake city. They were expensive and pretty beat up. They were not really that good for eating, a lot of stringy pulp. But they juiced well with a spell." Harry said adding a splash of champagne to each glass.

"Well this all looks great." Hermione said.

They sat at the table stuffing their faces and talking and Harry sat back with a girn on his face. He loved this. This was the closest thing to family he had. Abby saw the look on his face and smiled at him. When they were all done they sat back in their seats and let their bellies stick out.

"I hope everyone saved room for dessert, I made apple pie and cherry cobbler." Harry said with a smirk to watch them all protest.

"Too FUll." Neville said burping. "Sorry." He said.

"Don't be, I wish I could burp. I'm afraid to try. I shouldn't have had that second waffle. Too heavy." Abby said rubbing her visible food bump.

"I'm sure it was the second waffle and not the three big portions of omelet." Harry said.

"It was waffle! All the carbs! They catch up with you. Burp! ahh." She said burping.

"Too much bacon." Hermione said smacking her lips as she drank more water.

"It was all really good." Neville said picking in his teeth with a toothpick he saved from the chicken sandwich he ate.

"How are we going to go back out?" Abby asked.

"We can't, not for a while." Neville said.

"Anything going on out there?" Harry asked.

"Not much. Just patrolling the roads but it's even too cold for the undead. We spotted a group of dire wolves near Hamilton. We tracked them to some trees and took them out. Five big suckers. Kate's taking care of them for us as we speak. We did run into our old friend Shamus. He's living just inside the wall of Hamilton. He took a job with the local watch group and he's hunting the woods nearby for game meat to sell in the town store." Neville said.

"Good for him. Joining the social group is good." Harry said with a smile.

"I want to turn a few of the wolf pelts we just got into a throw for over the couch in the living room." Abby said.

"We should make fur lined long leather coats for the winter. Maybe make some warmer hats too." Neville said.

"I can work on that. We should try getting some rabbits in the forest later. They have the best fur. We'll summon them out of the forest and maybe we can stock up on some more deer as well." Abby said looking to Neville.

"Sounds good to me. We can go as soon as I can move." Neville said.

"I agree." She said as Harry cleared the table of leftovers.

"Well I think I have a new potion. I've been consulting with Alice about a potion I found in a book we got yesterday. It's a general purpose healing tonic that might work for muggles and it's cheap to make in big batches. It might be good enough to replace the healing tonic we use in the operative's kit." Hermione said.

"I have a project of my own. I'm going to tackle the ammo, and then I was thinking of making a few things. I'm going to make 25 more Steel model 1's. The custom Lemat revolvers are damn useful and I think we should have some back up guns on hand. Also I want to mass produce a few really nice guns from the trunks and have them on hand. We'll look into how ready the world is for semi-automatic handguns and if they are then I think we can make some real coin selling Steel Model 1's 2's 3's. You get the point. One man's Colt 1911 is another man's Steel Model 11. Even if we just come out with the first swing out cylinder revolver before colt does we can make a lot of bank." Harry said.

"You know, that's good thinking. We have a few different revolvers in the trunks. Colts, Smith and Wessons, and even Taurus'. If we picked a few and patented them we could get ahead of the curve." Neville said.

"A Colt Single action is going for about $25 a gun. You think we could sell a colt detective special for $47 a gun?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"The Colt Python in .357 magnum which is the same as .38XL." Neville agreed.

"The Smith and Wesson model 29 in 44 magnum." Harry said.

"The most powerful handgun in the world!" They both said.

"Do you boys even have a model 29?" Hermione asked.

"Maybe? But you know what we do have and what we should start carrying is the Raging Judge's in the ditch kits we made. Remember the kit?" Harry asked with a smile.

"I do, that was a fun trip, we should take one like that again." Neville said.

"What are you talking about?" Abby asked.

"I'll show you. Neville you tell the story." Harry said getting up and jogging to his room.

"Back about four or five years ago we both got time off. It was like now, mid november. And at the time we were really into survival shows and books. So we set up a ditch kit. It was a bag with a few guns, a few hundred rounds of ammo, fire starting tools, knives, small axes, you know, survival gear. We called them ditch kits because it was everything you need to survive if you had to ditch out of your plan in a bad place." Neville said as Harry walked in with a beat up looking brown canvas duffle bag with leather straps.

Harry dropped the big bag on the table and unbuckled the straps. He grabbed the strap and flung open the big knife roll style bag revealing a broken down winchester model 12 takedown shotgun in 12 gauge, two bandoliers of shotgun ammo, a Ruger Mark 3 hunter pistol in stainless steel with a small red dot sight, a big revolver with black rubber grips, a flare gun, a long machete, a 24 inch axe, three maglite style flashlights in different sizes, a multi tool and three knives. A folding knife, a five inch drop point knife in a leather belt sheath, and a bigger 10 inch camp knife. In the bottom of the bag was a small tent, a medical kit, a rolled up wool camp blanket, a yoga mat, a mess kit and a pelican case.

"I came up with the bags. They are a knock off of Rick O'Connell's bag from the Mummy. So cool." Harry said looking over all the gear and cataloging it all in his head. He pulled out the pelican case and popped it open to show off the hugely expanded inside packed full of boxes and cases.

"We chartered a plane to take us to a barren spot in unincorporated Alaska, we tossed a GPS beacon out of the plane, and then about twenty minutes later we jumped out of the plane with parachutes and our ditch kits. We staggered our jumps three minutes apart and when we landed we were miles apart from each other and about 125 miles from the GPS beacon. It took us two days to find each other and it took us a little over two weeks to get to the beacon. In that two weeks, aside from the charms and enchantments on our gear we didn't use any magic. In fact we didn't even have our wands. We had basic's like 25 lbs of flour, coffee, cornmeal, salt, and sugar, along with a few boxes of power bars, but that was it. If we wanted to drink we had to find a stream or melt snow. If we wanted to eat meat we had to hunt and kill it. It was great." Neville said with a nostalgic look on his face.

"Just you and me braving the Alaskan wilderness. It was great. Remember when we figured out how to hook our two small tents together to give us more space?" Harry said with a smile.

"You were so proud of yourself. Remember that pack of wolves that would not leave us alone until we killed and ate them?" Neville said.

"That was the first time we had wolf. That trip was the first time we had, wild rabbit and squirrel too." Harry said.

"It was the first time we had to gut something that wasn't human. That was odd." Neville said.

"But this is the gun we're talking about. It's a Taurus Raging Judge with a six inch barrel. It can shoot .410 shotgun shells, 454 casull, or a 45 long colt. We had 50 rounds of each. We even had these custom cross draw shoulder rigs made for them." Harry said pulling the big revolver out of the leather holster it was sitting in and handing the gun to Abby.

"My god! This gun weighs a ton." She said swinging out the cylinder. "And it's loaded. What is with you and the loaded guns." She said dropping out the six very big bullets out of the cylinder.

"If a gun's not loaded it's a paper weight. That gun is a five pound paper weight empty, and just under six pounds of bear stopping power loaded. It's a beast of a gun and without the whisper charm you'd go deaf if you shot it without ear protection." Harry said taking the gun back.

"We definitely need to make a few of these and the rounds for them. We should also look in the trunks and find a few other revolvers to copy. Like you said the colt detective special is a classic I know I saw one or two of them in your bag." Neville said.

"I'll look in the trunk and see what we're working with. We might even find an alternative to our operative guns. After all we tend to hunt more than human these days. We really need an intermediate gun for hunting trolls and things in that size bracket. Those 500 nitro rounds don't grow on trees and we only have so many of them." Harry said taking the winchester model 12 out and putting it together before testing out the action.

"There was a 458 socom rifle in your bag. I want one if you can make it. We also need ammo for it. Something with a lot of penetration. And a magically expanded magazine." Neville said.

"I think we should take a few guns out in the field with us and go hunting with them. If we find something that really works we'll put it into a small production. But we'll start with revolvers. We also need to look into getting a patent." Harry said.

"We need to check in the city about something like that but they might not have anything like that. We may need to head east if we want to file a patent." Neville said.

"We'll add it to the list of shit we want to do when we get to the east coast. Now if you'll excuse me I have work to do." Harry said rolling the ditch bag up and taking it with him to his study.

Harry set aside 6 of the 100 crates of 38lc ammo they got the day before. He then went to work on the big stacks of boxes. At first, Harry spent a minute or two looking at the ten stacks of ammo crates. He didn't know where to starts but then he shrugged, grabbed his wand and waved it at the crates. They floated up off the ground and became a big amorphous blob. He pointed at the ground and ended up with nine 50 pound kegs of black powder, 99 lead bars, 71 brass bars and three small kegs full of primers. He also had 75 crates marked .38XL.

Harry turned 20 of the brass bars and half the primers into 50,000 .38XL casings with primers. He used 32 lead bars and 4 brass bars and made 50,000 brass jacketed 150 grain bullet heads. He packed the casings and heads into 20 crates and set them off to the side. He stood up from his chair and expected to be drained but instead he felt fine. It was odd, the more he used the goblin magic the less it drained him.

He took out the box of gun parts that made up the Lemat patterned Steel Model 1 out of his desk and copied each piece 25 times. When he was done he had a crate full of gun parts. He would sit down later and build the guns but for now he wanted to get all the charms work out of the way. He headed into the storage room and found the trunks with the modern guns. Thank's to his sister's need to label things he was able to pull down the trunk with the revolvers. There were 46 revolvers in the trunk and three ammo cans with .32, .38, .357, .44 magnum, and .500 magnum. Harry dumped the trunk out and started sorting the guns by make and caliber. All of the guns were shiny nickel plated or polished stainless steel with fancy gips and engravings.

Of all the guns he tended to take off bad guys he killed he never liked to take plastic framed guns or revolvers. For him to keep a revolver ment it had to be nice. He sorted through each revolver and set all the .38 and .357 magnum guns off to the side cutting his options down to 26. Next he went through and tested each gun on a bunch of criteria. He looked at everything from how the gun fit in the hand to the weight of the trigger pull and balance of the gun. Everytime he found something he hated about a gun he would toss it back in the trunk. Things like odd shaped handles, clunky mechanics, and shots vs size were all looked at.

In the end he took three different guns. He took a nickel plated colt detective special third generations with pearl grips and factory engravings, a colt python in .357 magnum with an 6 inch barrel like his brother asked for. But he really liked the S&W performance shop 627 8 shot .357 with a 1.5 inch barrel and nice wood grips. But the barrel was comically short. He found a S&W Performance center competition 686 with a weighted barrel and nice big wood grips. He would just swap out the barrels and he would be golden. Not only would the bigger barrel give him better accuracy but the five weights under the barrel would give him less recoil. When you added his Taurus raging judge he had a lot of options to work with.

He went back to this office and starting with the Colt detective special he took the gun apart, making sure to catalog each part, take a picture of the part, and a picture of where it went with his phone. He then went back and copped each part 25 times in steel and wood making a few small adjustments. He made the cylinder just a few millimeters longer to fit the .38XL ammo they had. He also played with grips, making 10 guns with bigger chunky grips, 10 with finger grooves, the last 5 with slim grips. He put all the parts into a box and set them aside before moving on to the Colt Python.

He repeated the steps and copied the gun 25 times. He made 15 guns with the 6 inch barrels but he made 10 guns with smaller 3 inch barrels for concealment. He moved on to the S&W 627 revolver. He repeated his work on the Python and copped the gun and both barrel lengths. When he boxed up the parts he was magically dead. He walked out of his study and headed into the kitchen to get dinner ready. He was making dragon, pot roast style with potatoes, carrots, and onions. He took the big hunk of dragon meat he had marinating in red wine and salt out of the chiller just as Neville and Abby got back from patrol at 5.

"We come bearing the fruits of the hunt." Neville called out carrying a trunk into the kitchen. He dropped it on the floor by the chiller and sniffed the air. "What is that?" He asked.

"Dragon pot roast. It's not going to be done for a few hours. If you need a snack there are still a few sandwiches from earlier." Harry said having a glass of red wine as he browned the big hunk of dragon meat in a huge 18 inch skillet.

"Sound's good. We got 6 dear, 140 rabbits, 6 coyotes, 3 more big wolves, and a 10 foot tall big brown bear. Abby is a hunting machine, although I must admit we summoned the rabbits and snapped their little necks. Abby was much better at it then I was. It feels wrong to kill something so small and innocent like that." Neville said as Abby rolled her eyes at him.

"Big strong killer can't snap a few rabbit necks. He made me do all the work." Abby said pouring herself a glass of wine.

"Killing humans is one thing but the small innocent little bunnies is another thing altogether." Neville said.

"I get it. What's in the trunk?" Harry asked.

"These are the five wolves from earlier. They are all butchered up, packaged in paper, and ready to hand out. Kate's got a lot of work ahead of her. We also got a few more fallen trees and a big sack of pine needles to turn into pucks." Neville said.

"We'll I'm all tapped out. I got the ammo squared away and made 25 copies of the Steel Model 1. I also made 25 copies of the colt detective special, the colt python, and the S&W 627 L frame series. I ran out of juice before I could get to the raging judge guns. But I did manage to make different barrel lengths for the two guns I found in the trunk." Harry said.

"Man your control is awesome with that spell. I wish I had that much control." Neville said.

"I honestly think it comes down to practice. The more I use it the better I get at controlling the end product. I was able to copy the colt factory engravings on the detective special but I changed the name to Steel model 2 .38 XL. Three weeks ago that would have never been an option but I've cast that spell over two hundred times now. It takes less power and I have more control. You cast it what, about 25 times? Give it some time, you'll get there." Harry said transferring his meat to a roasting pan and adding the chopped up onions to the pan with more fresh butter.

"I hope so, I think I'll do all the gold and silver smelting from now on. It will give me more practice time and free you up to do the more important stuff." Neville said.

"If you want to help free up time go in my study and grab the boxes of gun parts. I separated them out by part number. Take my phone. It has step by step instructions and pictures. Start building guns. I want to test fire them. I made sure they can all take the .38 XL. I made 50,000 brass casings and brass jacketed lead bullet heads for Smith. I want to shoot the shit out of these guns until we narrow it down from 3 to 2. Those will be the model 2 and 3 in the Steel line, and that's another thing I was thinking about. Instead of Steel, what do you think of Blackwell and Steel? You know like Smith and Wesson? We'll mark the guns B&S and everything we make can be a B&S product." Harry said.

"As long as you make sure the '&' is big. We don't want people going around calling the guns BS." Neville said.

"Good call." Harry said scratching his chin as his brother walked out of the kitchen.

Harry got everything in the oven and came into the dining room to see all three of them working on a different type of gun. Hermione was working on the S&W 627s, Neville had the pythons, and Abby had the detective specials. Harry grabbed the box with the Model 1's and started building guns. Over the next two hours they finished up their work and they were happy with the end results. At 8 they called Smith over for dinner and they showed off the guns. Smith was in love with all of them. The swing out cylinders and the speed loaders were revolutionary.

"I want one of each. For testing purposes of course." Smith said looking at the guns the way gulum looked at the one ring. He was still holding the detective model with the finger grooved wood grips.

"You can borrow a few of them to put to the test, but these are guns that don't exist in this timeline yet. We can't let them fall into random people's hands. If they get the patent on it before we do we're fucked." Harry said.

"I'll swear a magical oath and I'll keep them locked in my safe when I'm not testing them. I want to see how they hold up to abuse, over cooked ammo, and general day to day shit. I'm going to put a few hundred rounds of black powder .38lc ammo through them before going back to the .38XL and see if it still works. The folks buying this gun will not have access to good ammo all the time. Sometimes you're stuck using the ammo you got. There's going to be a lot of hand loading with cheap black powder and pot lead that these guns have to hold up to." Smith said.

"Well you put a few of them through hell and we'll shoot the shit out of our set. The first gun to crap out on either one of us is out. If they all make it we'll patent them all. We also have to make copies of this bad boy." Harry said showing off the Raging Judge.

"That's not a gun. That's artillery!" Smith said.

"It was made for stopping bear. I thought it might be good for giant wolves and spiders. Things like that." Harry said.

"Good thinking. We need all the help we can get and with the ease of loading and the option of the speed loaders that you showed me these could be the best guns in the world. Have you thought about production?" Smith asked.

"We have not. I was thinking about small scale at first. Sell a few hundred out here in the west. Then we might look into a factory. Maybe we can make more money by just selling the patent to Colt or S&W. who knows?" Harry said.

"Selling might be you're best bet any ways. The price of production might be an issue with these designs. A lot of moving parts. Unless you want to magic up the guns like this batch. Then you're looking at a smaller overhead. If you sell to Colt or S&W you could make a few dollars off each gun they sell and you don't have to worry about anything. That's how most patent agreements work I think." Smith said.

"It's not a bad idea Harry. We'll sell these to Colt and S&W and then we just sit back and collect our royalty checks." Neville said.

"Or you could just make the Model 1. I love this gun. 9 shots of overcooked .38 and a 20 gauge shell? Who wouldn't want one." Smith said picking up one of the Model 1's from the table. "And because it's enchanted you can sell them for a lot. People would be willing to pay $75 or $100 for one. If it's engraved with the nice wood grips like this one you might even get $125. $150 for nickel and gold engravings. You would only need to hire a few wizards to handle the production. Two wizards copying the gun parts. Two wizards engraving the enchantments on the guns, a few people putting the guns together. You sell them in nice wood cases with brass latches and red felt. You would be making a really good profit." Smith said.

"Can't the man that made the Lemat revolver sue us for the guns?" Hermione asked.

"No, because even though the base gun was a Lemat at one point this gun is not. It has a different loading style, the frame is different, the grip angle and frame is different, the barrels are different, hell if you really wanted to dodge any type of lawsuit I can try to make the gun double action using a modified colt thunder spring and hammer set. It might work." Smith said.

"You think you can make the guns double action?" Harry asked.

"It would take some fiddling with, but I think I can do it." Smith said.

"If you can make the gun double action I want one. I don't care what you charge. I'm done carrying single action. Once we have a prototype I can fix the guns we have." Harry said.

"How about this, hire me to help run the company and I'll add my rune string for accuracy and strength to the guns. We can tack on an extra few dollars." Smith said.

"What are we talking about here? A job with a title and a paycheck or a partnership with a percentage?" Harry asked.

"I was guessing a title and paycheck, but I'll take a percentage if you're offering it up?" Smith asked with a smirk.

"How about this, if you can get the double action to work you get a partnership, if not you got a job?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"A challenge, I like it. I'll have the gun ready as soon as I can. I can tell you now you're going to want to patent it at the patent office in Denver before you start selling any of these guns. You might want to head out to the east coast at some point and pitch your designs to Colt in Connecticut and Smith and Wesson in Massachusetts." Smith said.

"Good thinking. If you can get the gun to work in double action then you're in on the ground floor of B&S Firearms out of Eureka Nevada. We can set up a small building in town, expand it, hire a few witches and wizards. Swear them to secrecy and start pumping out guns. We can open a small shop in Salt Lake and sell high end handmade enchanted firearms at a staggering price." Harry said.

"If we're going with that hand built guns for the rich idea then we should make a few 500 nitro rifles and 4 bore guns for hunters." Neville said.

"Good thinking Nev. it's less moving parts and easier to make but we can sell it for five times as much." Harry said.

"I think all three of you boys are getting ahead of yourselves. We still have to go through testing to see if the guns even work. We have to file for a patent. That's going to take some time. Then we have to find people powerful enough to cast the spells to make the parts a few dozen times a day. Not to mention you all still have day jobs. So put the brakes on. We won't need to look for store front space for a while." Hermione said laughing at them.

"True. But we're going to be rich." Harry said.

That night Kate and her workers dropped off the five trunks of meat, fur, and hide. Abby spent some time tanning the hides and furs and then she made heavy winter gear for them. She made each of them a black dragonhide and rabbit fur lined long rifle coat. A black wide brimmed hat made of heavy felt with a fur lined flap in the back that came down and covered your ears and the back of your neck with soft rabbit fur. She also made them all a pair of soft black leather dragon hide pants. She made a wolf fur throw for over the couch in the living room and two wolf fur blankets for their beds. She even fixed the big bear skin and made a rug for in front of the fireplace in the living room.

The next day Harry ditched his normal guns in favor of two Colt Pythons with 6 inch barrels in his gun belt and two S&W 627 with the 6 inch barrels in his shoulder rig he grabbed two colt detectives with the finger grooved wood grips and tossed them in his coat. Abby took two S&W 686s with 6 inch barrels as her mains and two 3 inch colt pythons in her shoulder rig. She also grabbed two detectives and tossed them in her coat. They were about to head out for the day when someone knocked on the front door. Harry answered it and saw sheriff deputy Teddy Cox.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Request for you in Salt Lake city. Marshal Copland sent you a magical telegram asking for your assistance." He said handing him the piece of paper.

"Understood, thanks for the head's up Teddy." Harry said patting the younger man on the back before looking at the note. "Things have gone tits up in the city. Nev get your things, this might require all of us." Harry said making 30 speed loaders for the python and 30 for the 686s as Neville headed to his room to change. He dumped a few boxes of .38XL rounds into the tray and loaded the speed loaders with Abby's help. They each took ten speed loaders for the colt and ten for the S&W and put them in separate pockets. Neville came out dressed in his gear and grabbed the 6 inch pythons for his gun belt and the 6 inch S&W 627s for his shoulder rig. He grabbed two detectives with the bigger wood grips for his coat before they portkeyed out to Salt Lake City. As soon as they landed in the marshal's office they were in a ball of chaos. The cage was full of criminals, there were deputy marshals running every which way shouting orders at sheriff's deputies, and marshal Chuck Copeland was standing in the middle yelling orders at everyone. As soon as he saw them he relaxed a bit. They jogged over to him.

"What's going on marshal?" Harry asked.

"It's a fucking shit show out there that's what's going on. Word got out that the Mayor and half his staff are gone. But more importantly the sheriff is missing as well. The rumor of necromancy spread through the town over night and we got a full on panic going. The sheriff's deputies are in disarray with a good portion who were in on the dark shit not turning up for work today and many of them fleeing the city during the night. With about 250 deputies out, the police force is very understaffed. The people took this opportunity to go bat shit crazy in the absence of power. We have looting, riots, fires, rapes, murders, and a massive protest at the castle as the staff and city managers all scramble to figure out who's in charge. I got a 100 sheriff's deputies guarding the castle and pushing back the protesters. I got the rest out trying to help but we're in a free fall here with my staff scrambling to fill in for the missing sheriff's deputies." Copeland said.

"Where can we do the most good?" Harry asked.

"I need you three to fly around the city and help put out the fires as they start. We've cleaned out most of this side of high town but there is a crime wave sweeping through low town south and east. The docks to the north west are being looting and the sky docks to the north east are being attacked. There are dead bodies in the streets waiting to be picked up before they get up on their own. I put a call in to the Denver Marshal's office and they are going to be sending over most of their marshals. They should get here in a day, maybe two days if things go bad on their end. They are going to get a ride on the supply ship that should be docking there today. We sent word to Fort Cameron. They are sending 1,000 men to help keep the peace, but it's going to take three days to get here. I need you guys to help me keep the city from burning down for the next three days until they get here." He said.

"We're on it. We'll see what we can do." Harry said leading them out of the office. Outside you could see the destruction. The streets were empty for the most part. Shop windows were broken and goods were on the floor. There were a few dead bodies under sheets waiting for the undertakers to come collect them. They spotted smoke columns from buildings that were on fire.

"Fuck." Abby said looking around.

"That sums it up nicely. We're going to have to split up. Abby stick with Neville and try to help put out some of the fires and clear the streets. Head north and check on the docks. I'm going to head to low town and see if I can help stop that shit down there." Harry said hopping on his broom.

"Be careful out there." Abby said.

"You too. Call me if you need help. Good hunting." Harry said before he took off.

Harry headed south but he didn't get too far. He spotted a group of three men trying to rape two women in an alley. He dropped out of the air just long enough to shoot all three men.

"You two get inside and stay inside. It's fucking dangerous out here." Harry said helping the women up.

He handed them the two colt cap and ball guns with the cut short barrels the boys were threatening them with and sent them on their way. He looted the bodies, pulled a cavalry saber from his bag, and chopped off their heads to make sure they stayed down before he strapped on the saber to his belt and took off again.

He spotted a house on fire being put out by a few magicals. Harry hovered above the house and added his jet of water to the house from the roof and in a few minutes the house was put out. He landed just long enough to check if anyone needed help before heading south again.

He saw three kids looting a general store at gunpoint. He dove right into the store through the smashed front window and stunned the three boys. He took the gun and two knives they had on them and transfigured them into coins before he took off again.

He made it a few more blocks and saw a man robbing a older lady at gun point. Harry stunned the man, turned him into a coin and summoned him and the gun he was holding.

"Get home Ma'am. Here, protect yourself." He said handing her the Remington revolver.

"Thank you." She said crying.

"It's my job, now get off the streets. It's not safe." Harry said flying away.

By the time Harry came back to the marshal's office at noon he had put out 6 fires, stopped 17 robberies, 4 rapes, and caught a gang of men pulling smash and grabs on all the business in low town south. He had been shot and stabbed a few times. None of it went through the coat or vest but it still hurt. He dropped off 28 prisoners and got a round of applause and he handed over the charging documents for each of them.

"This place is a mad town." Harry said pulling out a flask of healing tonic and taking it.

"Your wife and brother dropped off a few dozen prisoners about fifteen minutes ago. You three work better than all the deputies I got." Copeland said.

"It helps that we can use magic to get the prisoners back here faster. You need some magical deputies." Harry said pulling out a candy bar.

"I got magical deputies. They don't have your skills. You wouldn't happen to be willing to train my three guys?" He asked.

"I could try but I gotta tell you the other half of why we're good is practice. I've been killing people for years. Magical government wet work is a dirty job but someone has to do it. The same with my brother. Even Abby was a target shooting champion." Harry said.

"Speaking of which. I think your girl might have had to kill someone today. She looked a little shaken up when she got back. Dead eyed you know?" Copeland sid.

"If so it was the first time she did. I'm almost glad she's with Neville. He's better at feelings then I am. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to head over to east low town. Then I'm going to fly over the city and see if I can help some folks." Harry said taking a drink from his canteen and reloaded his speed loaders and his gun belt from the two boxes of ammo he had in his bag.

"Good luck with that." The marshal said rushing off to deal with a situation across the office.

Harry flew out over the town and watched for signs of trouble. He spotted a group of three sheriffs deputies in a gunfight with six men trying to get away with the loot from a small jewelry store. Harry dropped out of the sky next to the deputies that were hiding behind an overturned cart in the middle of the street.

"Hey boys, what do we got here?" Harry asked.

"These six fucks tried a smash and grab, we were right up the street from here in the gun store where someone tried to rob that place." One of the men said.

"Right, stay down. I'll take care of this." Harry said.

Harry pulled the two 627's out and rolled around the cart. He walked towards the shop and blasted each man in the shoulder. As he got closer he stunned the downed men and turned them into coins. When he got the last guy he summoned the coins and the guns.

"That was crazy!" one of the men said.

"Scure the crime scene and keep your heads down boys." Harry said summoning his broom and hopping on.

Harry spent the next five hours stopping the city from tearing itself apart. By four in the afternoon the sun had set and the criminals really got bold. The amount of people Harry ended up killing as opposed to arresting went up. By five Harry had to go back to the marshal's office because he ran through all 252 rounds of .38XL ammo he had on him. He dropped off 56 more prisoners. At this point they were just chaining them up and making them sit on the floor because they ran out of cell space. Harry was about to head back to the cube to get more ammo when Abby landed in the office with Hermione who was dressed in her vest, long coat, leather pants, and gun belts.

"Oh good, you're back." Abby said.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"We were running low on .38XL so I went to get more. I also grabbed Hermione to act as backup for you or Neville. It's not safe to fly alone tonight and we've been going at it for a while. We also grabbed the trunk of meat from the cold storage and we raided the bakery and general store in town. We have meet, bread, cheese, butter, and milk." Abby said handing a trunk and three bags off to a staff worker who was cooking over a big fire in the fireplace to feed all the hungry deputies and refugees staying in the building.

"Good call. You got more .38XL? I'm out too. You run through it so fast out there." Harry said clearing off a desk. Abby set the two loading trays out and handed Harry 30 boxes of ammo from her bag.

"What are you guys running into out there? You each had like 250 rounds of .38XL on you when you left." Hermione said watching Harry reload the speed loaders. He also pulled out a block of steel and made 30 more python speed loaders and 30 more 627 speed loaders. That was a 120 speed loaders all together.

"A little bit of everything. Imagine a city of more than a million people and only about 500 disorganized cops and 50 marshals to keep them all in check during a riot." Harry said loading up bullet tray with a pack spell and loading the speed loaders six at a time as Abby kept dumping boxes of ammo out on the tray.

"And it's been going on for over 16 hours at this point with no signs of stopping." Marshal Copland said walking over to greet them.

"Marshal Copeland, meet my sister Hermione Blackwell. Sis meet the head marshal Chuck Copeland." Harry said lining up the speed loaders.

"Good to meet you Ma'am." Chuck said.

"Call me Mia, I'm here to help. Where do you need me?" She asked grabbing a few looses rounds and loading the two 6 inch 627's on her belt and the two 6 inch colts in her shoulder rig.

"Abby how many spells have you cast today? How many has Neville cast?" Harry asked.

"A few dozen small spells, binding, stunning, water spells, transfiguring people into coins. Neville has been doing the same but his spell count is higher. We ran into a huge gang of 30 men trying to steal a few of the docked skyships. The sky dock is a huge target. But we're both good to go." She said looking a bit haggered.

"Right, you come with me. Hermione can head out with Neville to back him up. I want to be out there until 1am when the temperature really drops below freezing. I have a feeling the temperature is going to slow most of this violence way down. After that we'll trade off shifts to get some rest and food in our systems. As it is make sure both you and Neville get a few food bars in you." Harry said handing Abby 15 speed loaders for her colts and 15 speed loaders for her 627's. He handed double that number to Hermione for her and Neville. He took the last 30. He loaded his guns and his gun belt as Abby filled her's. He handed Hermione a few boxes of extra ammo and they split up with Hermione calling her husband and flying out to meet up with him and Harry and Abby heading out on patrol together.

"How you holding up?" Harry asked as they flew around the city looking for a fight.

"Good. Like I said we didn't have to cast that many spells. It was mostly clean kills. They shot at us and we shot back." Abby said in a cold robotic tone.

"That's what the report says. Those were Neville's words coming out of your mouth. How are you holding up?" Harry asked.

"I thought you didn't like to talk about your feelings?" She shot back.

"I don't but when the woman I love is dealing with the guilt of her first kill I'm going to ask." Harry said.

"I'm fine for the most part. I've talked about this stuff with my granddaddy before. You know, asked him how he felt killing a man. He said something that stuck with me. Sometime it's your job to make sure your face is the last thing a bad man sees before he's judged. It's the job Harry. I wanted to do the job and I'm doing it. Is it as fun as I thought it would be? No. it's not fun. But it's important work. And I'm going to do my goddamn job." She said.

"So you're taking the american sniper approach to this. You want to be a sheep dog. I can respect that. In fact I respect the shit out of that. It's why I do the job. Now get hard because I see some shit going down over there." Harry said dropping out of the sky with her following him.

For the next seven hours until one in the morning they patrolled the city and stopped crime. Both teams made at least 40 more arrests and they killed more than they arrested. With the city like it was it wasn't worth arresting rapists and murders. They didn't have cell space for them and it would take weeks for a judge to sentence them to the rope so they just skipped a step and ended the fuckers now.

To add insult to injury they had more than a few dead bodies turn into zombies on them. As soon as Harry started seeing them he sent out an alert to Neville that they had to start collecting bodies and chopping off their heads before they got up on their own. As it was they had close to a hundred undead walking around the city that they had to take care of. By one when they got back to the station they were all beat to hell. Harry looked at his family and saw the drain and fatigue setting in. It was cold, windy, and visibility was shitty thanks to the lingering smoke in the air from the burning buildings.

"Guys we got to split up to give half of us some time to sleep." Harry said.

"I'm beat, I've got nothing left in the tank." Abby said looking the worse for wear.

"I can keep going if I have to. You know me, I'm good for three days." Neville said but the sentiment was ruined by his yawn at the end.

"I just got started." Hermione said looking beat but still ready for a fight.

"RIght, Mia, you're with me. We're going to pull an all nighter. We'll trade off with them at 8 tomorrow morning. Then we'll sleep until two. At that time we'll both go at it until one and trade off again." Harry said.

"Sounds good to me." Abby said.

"If you need me call me." Neville said looking at his wife.

"Get some sleep love." She said kissing him.

When they portkeyed out Harry and Hermione loaded up on more ammo and headed back out for a long cold night of patrolling over the city. For the most part the cold of the middle of the night did slow the crime wave all the way down. They only made a handful of arrests that night and they only had to shoot at a few people. The sun struggled to rise at half past six and with the small bit of heat that came with the new day the crime wave picked up. The last hour of their very long day was more productive then the whole night before. They traded off with Neville and Abby who both looked fresh and ready to go. Harry barely got his guns and his clothes off before he passed out.

When the phone rang at 1:45 pm and he rolled out of bed the fatigue of the all nighter was still lingering in his bones. He took a hot shower, dressed for the long day ahead of him, and made a quick but heavy breakfast for him and his sister. They ate quickly, grabbed more ammo, and portkeyed to the office. When they got there they were shocked to find the cells almost empty. They spotted Neville and Abby attending a meeting with marshal Copeland and a few other men.

"What happened to all the criminals?" Harry asked.

"We moved them to the Castle dungeons and the Sheriff's station in high town because we ran out of room here." Neville said looking beat up. It was warmer today, and the added nicer temperature must have added to the crime wave.

"Well what's the worst problem area?" Harry asked checking his guns and loading his speed loaders.

"Right now the dodgy end of south low town is still our worse problem area. We could use you two down there." Neville said.

"Right. We'll get on it. How are supplies going?" Harry said loading Hermione's speed loaders for her as she loaded up her gun belt from the three crates of .38XL ammo they brought with them.

"Good, we didn't see quite as many criminals so far today. It seems like we took care of the bulk of them the yesterday. So far it's been a lot of punk kids with junk guns sticking up shops for goods." Neville said.

"Well, we're off then, call us if shit goes tits up." Harry said leading his sister off.

The day wasn't as bad as the day before. It seemed like for the most part they were putting out a lot of little fires instead of big out of control fires both literally and figuratively. Things got even better at four when Neville called them to the airdock to help guard the main postal ship as it docked.

The air dock was made up of a group of nine connected warehouse style brick buildings that had a concrete fifty foot wide dock connected to the second floor of the warehouses allowing an airship to pull up next to the dock and lower a ramp to load and unload goods off the ships right into the second floor of the warehouses. There were two wide rampas at either sides of the dock leading down to the ground level. The St. Mary docked as Harry and Hermione flew overwatch over the air dock and Neville and Abby flew under the air dock on the ground level to make sure no one got too close. The men on the ship as well as the dock workers unloaded the ship as soon as the cargo bay doors in the side of the ship opened and lowered three ramps. In the loading rush 40 Denver marshals walked off the ship with their horses. Harry flew down and greeted them.

"Welcome to Salt Lake. I'm Deputy Marshal Harry Steel from Eureka Nevada. Man am I glad to see you guys." Harry said.

"I'm marshal Walter White, Head marshal of the Denver office. How bad are things?" An older man with a bald head, black hat, glasses, and a goatee asked and Harry had to hold in the laugh that was trying desperately to escape him.

"Bad, but not too bad now. It seems like we arrested or shot most of the bad apples yesterday. It's mostly kids now causing trouble. Your garden variety little shits. But the sun is going down and I expect crime to shoot up again. I'd be happy to escort you to the Marshal's office. We're using it as a base of operations. Are you boys we'll armed?" Harry asked.

"We are equipped with colts and a shotgun or rifle. Each man has 300 rounds of ammo on his person and we have two supply carts with food, ammo, and medical supplies." He said.

"Good. The marshal's office was running low. I've been supplying them with what we could form our small town but supplies were looking sparse." Harry said.

"We also brought a healer with us. Doc Carter back there to look after any wounded." Walter said but he was cut short as gunshots rang out at the front of the dock by the ramp. Harry was in the air headed there in the blink of an eye with Hermione on his tail. They found Neville and Abby hiding behind a stack of crates taking shots at a group of 16 men who were shooting at them. Harry dropped down next to his brother.

"What are we looking at Harry? We got behind cover as soon as the shooting started." Neville asked.

"There are 16 of them, they have rifles and revolvers. Most of them are up twenty feet behind the stack of crates and the rest are hiding around the corner of the building. I'm going to pop over there and start on that side when they turn on me take them down." Harry said grabbing his two colts and popping out.

He ended up ten feet away from the back of the group of six guys hiding around the corner of the building at the front of the dock. Harry shot the men in the back with the last man to go down being the only one to even see him. He ran to the corner and saw the ten men taking shots at his family. He holstered his colts and pulled his 627's. He started on the left and blasted each man center mass in the back. When the last three guys turned to see him Neville dropped them. Harry went through and took off each man's head with his saber before turning them into a brass coin. He flew back to the marshals and they were just getting the two carts off the ship.

"Looters." Harry explained as he reloaded his four guns.

"We're almost ready to go." Walter said rounding up his men with a few arm waves.

"Good. I'll fly escort for you guys. Just follow me and I'll lead you to the office. I'll also take care of any threats we might encounter." Harry said flying up to a hundred feet off the ground and taking up position just ahead of the convoy of forty horses and two carts.

Harry lead them back to the office and he only had to deal with three people that got too close to the convoy. In those cases a fired warning shot from Harry and a good look at the the silver stars the men were wearing was all it took to back them off. He helped unload the carts and get the supplies into the office before he headed back into the air and headed back to the docks. He arrived just in time to join a gunfight in the street by the ramp leading up to the dock between his family and a group of 43 rouge sheriff's deputies trying to steal the ship to get out of town. Harry did a fly over.

"You are all under arrest for shooting at US Marshals. Surrender now or you will die!" He called down.

He got shot in the leg for his trouble and had to dodge out of the way of more gunfire. The bullet did not make it through his dragon hide pants but it hurt like a bitch and Harry got pissed. He dove at the group using overturned carts and crates as cover. At twenty foot off the ground he blasted them with a lumos maximus blinding all of them and disorienting them as he dropped to the ground close by. In their half blind and confused state Harry killed 28 of them in eight seconds before his four guns ran dry and the blindness wore off. He dove behind cover and grabbed the two colt detectives out of his jacket. His sister watched him do all that she sight line apparated to the top of the warehouse and took out five more before they turned on her and shot the building. Harry stood up almost right in the middle of the group and took out the rest of them. They cleaned up the bodies and Harry and Abby headed up to patrol the city as Hermione and Neville finished watching the ship unload and the good transfered to the secure warehouse.

By the time the new marshals got situated and deployed throughout the city it was six. The group took a half hour for lunch/dinner before they took to the skies again. That night they traded off again with Abby and Neville going back home at one and Harry and Hermione patrolling the skies throughout the night. They traded off in the morning and by the time they got back at two the Union army troops were stationed around the city. They spent the rest of the day helping out as best they could but with the number of boots on the ground crime was way down again.

In fact it seemed like as soon at the army got there the city stopped acting out. People stopped protesting. Stores cleaned up and opened their doors to the public. People went back to work. And the streets were full of good law abiding citizens again. By eight that night the streets cleared up and everyone was in bed by ten. The random traffic in the city was mostly the soldiers and deputies patrolling the city. They all headed back to the marshal's office at midnight. Even the office looked calm. In fact deputies were heading home with their families for the first time in two days. Marshal Copeland was sitting at his desk nursing a glass of scotch and looking beat but he perked up when they walked in.

"We're headed home marshal, the city is in good hands now and things are back to normal." Harry said.

"I don't know how to thank you guys for all the hard work you put in. you four saved this city from itself." He said shaking their hands.

"It's all in a days, well three day's work." Harry said with a tired laugh.

"You four will be compensated for your hard work. Mark my words. The council knows who saved this city. Give us a few weeks to get our shit together and we'll pay you for your time. Thank you again for all your help." Chuck said looking close to tears. The week's events had finally caught up to him and he was fraying at the edges.

"Like I said we were happy to do our part. I just wish we could have done more. I know you lost a few men in the last three days and I'm sorry about that." Harry said patting the older man on the back.

"With this mess I'm surprised we didn't lose half the city. I know it's you four that stopped that from happening. Now go get something to eat and have a good night's rest. We got it from here." He said shaking their hands again before they portkeyed back to the cube.

They all limped off to bed. Harry dropped his guns and his clothes on the floor of his bedroom and climbed into bed with his girl. Abby rolled up into his side and looking at him with sad tear filled eyes.

"I killed 39 people in the last three days." She said in a soft broken voice as the tears rolled down her face.

"I know. I'm sorry you had to do that. But I'm not sorry you're here. You were put in a kill or be killed situation and you did what you had to do to survive. I'm proud of you. Not because of what you did but because any one else put into your shoes would have cracked under the pressure. Just know that I love you." Harry said kissing her.

"Harry, make love to me please? I need to feel something good right now to block out the bad." She asked. Harry rolled over and held her. That night they made love for the first time.


	9. Chapter 9

Everyone slept in the next morning. Harry was the first one up and he made breakfast for everyone who sat around the table looking hung over. The long hours and amount of magic they used really took a lot out of them. Smith stopped by towards the end of breakfast to drop off the updated double action Steel Model 1 he made along with a few crates of .38XL. He saw they were eating and sat with them. After breakfast Harry looked over the gun Smith handed him and checked the action. The trigger pull was almost too light in single action at 3 pounds, but the double action trigger pull was just a hair over 5 pounds and extremely clean.

"Nice work. I'll fix the rest of our guns today. It looks like you made partner in the company with this." Harry said smiling.

"So what is my share of the company?" Smith asked jokingly.

"1% of the profits or $10,000 a year, whichever is higher. But for that you have to oversee production. As the company grows so does your profit share. As for the guns I made. I'm going to put it to a vote but I think the colt python is out. I had two light primer strikes and the gun is big and clunky for just 6 rounds." Harry said.

"I agree. I didn't like my set. The 627's on the other hand are a godsend. Smooth as silk trigger. No malfunctions, the weighted barrels took away any felt recoil, and it gave you 8 very accurate rounds. It's the best gun we had." Neville said.

"I like the colt's well enough but I don't trust the lock up. It's weaker than the 627's lock. Twice on a quick reload I flicked the action closed and it bounced back open." Abby said.

"I like the 627's." Hermione said.

"Okay, the python's are out. We'll patent the design and sell it to colt. Let them deal with it. The 627's on the other hand will be the B&S Model 2. How about the colt detective?" Harry asked.

"I didn't use it enough to come down on the gun one way or the other." Abby said.

"I did and I love the little things. In fact I stopped using the pythons and switched to the detectives as my secondaries because they take the same speed loaders as the pythons." Hermione said.

"Compact, easy to conceal and six rounds of powerful stuff for such a small package. They make good backup guns. With two model ones on your hips, two 627's in the shoulder rigs, and a pair of detectives in your coat you never have to worry about anything. That's 46 loaded rounds of .38XL and 2 buck and ball 20 gauge shotshells on hand ready to go. That's the load out I'm taking with me from now on." Neville said.

"I agree, so we're all in favor of making the detective the model three?" Harry asked seeing the nods. "Okay, we'll look at the Raging judge at some point. For now we'll box up the pythons and in a few years we'll sell the patent to Colt. We'll make a stockpile of models 1,2, and 3 and we'll file the patent on the designs. Smith, how hard would it be to convert a winchester 44-40 rifle to shoot .38XL?" Harry asked.

"Easy, the .38XL is about the same size. The bullet's are almost the same length but the .38XL's are just a little bit skinnier. The action should work fine as long as the barrel and mag tube come down a bit in size. You thinking about outfitting the town with your guns?" Smith asked.

"I am, a B&S Model 2 and a rifle to replace the colt and rifle they have in 44-40. The .38XL hits harder and I like the idea of speedloaders. Plus free advertising. The same with the marshals here, and Ely, and Salt Lake but we'll do Model 1s for them. With full gold filled engravings, with a silver marshal's star in the dragon claw grips. The same with the model 2s for the local sheriffs. For the price of 60 model 1s and 45 model 2s we get free advertising. Plus we'll be the only producer of the .38XL ammo with brass jacketed bullets and magical smokeless powder. We can charge $2.50 a box of 50. All most all profit. You could use .38lc but blackpowder rounds? How cheap and low class. Let the regular people use that. You spend $150 for a custom gun you're going to buy the good stuff." Harry said.

"Yes, I can see that working. How much would it cost us to make that order?" Neville asked.

"Free, or close to it. The price of the few grams of gold and silver that would go into each gun. Everything else is shit we have laying around. We have thousands of blocks of steel, and a trunk full of dragon claws and teeth. Figure 5-7 grams of gold and 10 grams of silver per gun. That's what $10 worth of the shiny stuff?"

"There about. Also the price of 6 speed loaders with a loading tray, new leather, and 3 boxes of ammo for each gun. Your looking at about $15 a gun as well as the price of the rifles. We have a few but you would need to custom fit new barrels and mag tubes. We should do new stocks with brass name plates as well to avoid confusion. Your looking at about $20 for a rifle and revolver pair." Hermione said.

"We can trade out their rifles for the upgraded parts." Harry said thinking out loud.

"None of this happens without filing for a patent first." Hermione said.

"True, I think today I'm going to make a few dozed trigger kits for the models 1's we have. Tomorrow we should go out on patrol and check our county, it's been a few days. The day after that is Sunday we'll do a hunting trip. On Monday I'm going to fly to Denver from Salt Lake City in the morning. It's only about 500 miles from city to city. That's about a two and a half hour flight. When I land in Denver I'll set up a portkey landing zone and you guys can come over. We'll file the patent, check out the town, and talk to the local marshals. Walter should be back by then. Smith, do you want to join us on the trip?" Harry asked.

"I think I will, I've never been to Denver. Maybe I can get more supplies at a discount. Half of my smokeless compound comes from black powder but the potion I add to it takes away almost all the smoke and flash and gives the black powder ten times the explosive power. I get my potion supplies from Salt Lake but I wonder if I can find a discount." He said.

"Smith I think I might be able to help you with your potion if you share the recipe. We might be able to make it cheaper and better." Hermione said.

"Yeah, we're a team now. Anything to cut costs." Smith said nodding.

"Good, Smith see if you can sell off the trunk of beat up cheap guns we have at a good price while we're there." Harry said.

"We should compare prices on things as well. Enchanting supplies go fast in this house." Abby said.

"We'll add it to the list. For now I need Smith to show me how this double action trigger works." Harry said.

For the rest of the day they relaxed around the house in comfortable clothes. They had dragon burgers and fries for late lunch with a lot of beer. That night Harry made dragon steaks and garlic mashed potatoes. He made fresh rolls with butter on the side and they washed it all down with three bottles of red wine. That night the two couples turned in early and the next morning saw all four of them out patrolling the territory. They all had two model 1's on their gun belts, and two 627's or model 2's in their shoulder rigs. They killed a few dozen undead that day. They also found a nest of huge spiders in the hills close to the town and a pack of six huge coyotes by the road to Hamilton.

They were about to call it quits when Harry spotted something coming out of the mountains. He flew over to check it out with Abby following him. As they approached they saw what it was. A 12 foot long 2.5 foot wide young king snake that looked sluggish and weak until it spotted them and then it coiled up and spit venom at them. Harry blasted the snake with his .300 win mag rifle ten times in the head before it stopped moving. Harry turned it into a garden hose and summoned it. They dropped off the snake and the coyotes at kate's farm and called it a day. They ended up with 1,500 pounds of snake meat, 4 liters of venom, and three 3x8 sheets of snake skin from the king snake. They got a big trunk full of coyote meat that they handed over to Hamilton.

Sunday they got an early start. Hermione spent the morning working on the healing potion she found in the old book with Alice and the gunpowder formula with Smith as Harry, Abby, and Neville went hunting. They flew south west to the valley between three mountains west of Duckwater. They started off by scanning the area for any threats. They found a few undead, 8 massive coyotes, and 5 huge dire wolves. After they bagged them they moved on to deer and elk. Between the three of them they brought down 8 elk and 12 deer by eleven. They summoned a hundred rabbits and Harry and Abby snapped their necks and tossed them in the bag Neville was holding open for them. Harry gathered a few dozen fallen trees and a few big bags of pine needles. They dropped off the trunks of dead animals at the farm by noon and Harry turned the trees and pine needles into three trunks full of fire pucks. After that they helped clean and skin the kills while Kate and her workers butchered the meat and packaged it up. By the time the sun set they were done handing out packages of meat and fire pucks to the townspeople of Ely, Hamilton, and Eureka. When they came home they found Hermione and Alice working over the big cauldron making the potion.

Harry cooked dinner as they finished up and while the roast was cooking in the oven they bottled up the potion in single serving test tubes. They ended up wit 1,500 potions. It was enough to supply all three towns and they were going to get more ingredients for ten more batches. Hermione figured out the healing tonic would keep for years in the test tubes. That night they hosted Alice and Smith for dinner. Both of them would be coming on the trip to Denver in the morning. That night Harry and Abby went to bed early.

The next morning Harry's phone rang at five. Harry got up and took a shower. When he came out Abby went in. They both dressed in their leather pants, heavy winter cotton shirts, vests, boots, and long fur lined dragon hide coats. They had a quick but hearty breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. They filled their thermos with hot coffee and took the portkey to Salt Lake at half past 6. They flew off from there. The trip for the most part was uneventful and very cold. They were sustaining high speeds of 250 miles an hour, in a straight line, flying against the freezing cold wind. Harry stopped about an hour into the flight when his teeth wouldn't stop chattering. He looked over at Abby and saw her shivering so bad she was shaking the broom. They landed by the side of the road after doing a scan of the area. Harry made a small fire and they cast more warming spells on themselves.

"This was a bad idea. I should have taken my plane. This would have gone much smoother and warmer." Harry said drinking the hot coffee.

"YOu have a plane?" Abby asked through chattering teeth.

"Yes, but for such a short trip it was not worth it. The plane is a modified P-51 mustang made for magical endurance racing. It has a cruising speed of 650 miles an hour. By the time we got up in the air it would have been time to land." Harry said.

"Also it's a Mustang in 1885." She said going back to her hot drink.

"That wouldn't matter. The planes are equipped with cloaking and silencing charms. Just because they were used for racing doesn't mean they weren't used for missions." Harry said.

"But I imagine you need a lot of takeoff and landing space?" Abby asked.

"Not really. The planes have very powerful tuned up engines and the entire airframe is lightened to almost nothing. They take off in about 175 feet if you gunned the engines and hold the brakes to build up power." Harry said.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Why the fuck are we flying to Denver on brooms when you have a magical fucking plane?" She asked loosing her temper.

"I don't know? To save fuel?" Harry said with a shrug.

"YOu have 380,000 liters of fuel!" She said.

"Good point. Then there really was no point in freezing this morning." Harry said scratching the stubble on his chin.

"Harry pull out the plane, we're flying the rest of the way." Abby said.

"But we're only 250 odd miles from Denver." Harry said.

"Harry, pull out the plane." She said in a voice that brokered no arguments.

"Fine, but you know you didn't have to come this morning. You wanted to make the trip with me." Harry said pulling out his P-51 Mustang and setting it on the dirt road. He got a thermos cup to the back of the head for his lip. "Right, I'll just shut up and prep for takeoff." Harry said.

He expanded it and walked around the plane checking it over. Abby stood close by admiring the shiny silver plane. It had yellow and black checkered tail, and there was a pin up of a black haired woman in a black dress with a smoking gun in her hand. Written in the smoke cloud was "femme Fatale". The top of the nose was painted flat black and the propeller cone had a black and yellow spiral. Under each wing and the belly of the plane were bomb shaped fuel tanks. Harry hopped up on the wing and opened a door in the top of the wing. He checked on the two browning 50 caliber machine guns and the 20mm cannon mounted inside the wing.

"That's a lot of firepower." Abby said looking at the guns.

"Four 50 cal machine guns and two 20mm cannons. All of them belt fed with a thousand round belts. That's 6,000 rounds of ammo." Harry said checking the other wing guns.

"That's a lot of ammo." She said.

"You'd be surprised how fast it goes. I used this plane to provide close air support for a few clandestine missions in the Middle East. The guns run dry fast. The three hard points can hold four hellfire missiles each. That's when this baby really shines. Drones are good but a low slow pass in my girl really defines the phrase death from above." Harry said as he pulled out and expanded the water bottle fuel tank he had in his bag to the size of two 55 gallon drums stacked on top of eachother. He pulled the filler gun and hose out of the side. He opened a cap on the side of the plane and started filling up the tanks.

"I can only imagine." She said.

"This could take a while. The tank inside the plane is 800 gallons, the two under the wings are 300 gallon each and the under belly tank is 400 gallons. But once I top off all the tanks I'll be good for just shy of 24,000 miles." Harry said watching the gas go in.

"Wow, that's almost all the way around the world." She said forgetting most of her anger.

"I've taken this plane around the world. It's what it was made for. Neville's plane does the same thing. We rebuilt them from the frame up. We set the magical world record for circumnavigating the planet in WWII fighter planes. We did it in under 38 hours. We beat the shit out of the engines though so we overhauled them. That was ten years ago. Back then I didn't have the wing tanks, just the big internal tank, and we didn't have the refueling tankers like this. We had to make stops for gas. Hey Abby, do me a favor, get into the cockpit and tell me what the digital read out says." Harry said nodding to the open cockpit.

"Right." She said popping up to the wing and stepping into the plush interior. It was like a single seater sports car inside. Every bit of the cockpit was covered in brushed aluminum and soft brown leather. The seat was a soft brown padded leather bucket seat and the instrument panel was replaced with a magical LCD screen.

"What's it say under fuel?" Harry asked.

"Ummm, it says tanks 2, 3, and 4 are full and tank 1 is climbing up to almost full." She said.

"When it hits 790 tell me." Harry said.

"Okay! You're there." She called out.

"Good. That took 878 gallons. That means the drop tanks were mostly full." Harry said. Shrinking the gas tank. He hopped up onto the wing and climbed up to the cockpit. "So what do you think about my Femme Fatale?" Harry asked.

"I like her. She's pretty. We should have started the day like this." Abby said standing up and stepping out onto the wing next to Harry who reached into the box under his chair and pulled out a leather duffle bag. Inside was a soft brown leather bomber jacket with soft lamb's wool lining. On the back was the nose art and over his heart was a pair of gold wings. He ditched his long coat and pulled on the jacket.

"I've got to ask, what's with the flight jacket?" She said.

"It has a heating charm and it has a feather fall enchantment on it. It's essentially a parachute, also it makes me look dashing." He said posing on the wing.

"Well I can't argue with facts. It does look warm." She said laughing.

"For that you don't get to wear my backup jacket." He said pulling out a second jacket from the bag.

"I was joking." She said.

"Fine, but only because you're cute." Harry said. He helped her out of her long coat and held up the jacket for her to put on.

"Oh, this is soft and warm. I will keep this." She said rubbing her cheek on the soft lamb's wool collar. "Second question, where am I going to sit?" She asked looking in the one seat in the cockpit.

"It's a magical plane, you get the jump seat." Harry said hitting a button on the instrument panel. The cockpit expanded three feet longer revealing a fold down seat that was tucked behind his seat. He flipped down the leather seat and helped her into the cockpit. He adjusted the straps for her five point harness and then got in. He rolled up their coats and put them in the bag. He started the plane and took off with barely a bump or scrape. When they were up in the air he hit a few buttons and the plane vanished outside the cockpit and the sound of the engine died out.

"That's disconcerting." Abby said looking out the window at the cloaked plane.

"You get used to it. I can fly by the instrument panel. How's the heat? Should I turn it up?" Harry asked.

"No it's good. Much better then the brooms." She said.

"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking." Harry said leveling off and heading to Denver using his magical GPS map.

"You weren't thinking. You were living in 1885. You more than anyone else have adapted to this timeline fully. You're not a visitor, it's your home. You hardly ever draw your real guns even in a really bad situation. In fact aside from a few random calls on your phone, and modern appliances in the cube you pretty much only use the tech from 1885. Even the stuff you use is magical and not really from the future. You stopped watching movies. You work on projects in your study or you read the newspaper. You haven't mentioned your cars in weeks. In your head you knew you had a broom and it was the best way to get around." She said.

"I guess so. I don't know what it is about this timeline, but I like it here. I have a purpose. I'm the town marshal and everyone knows who I am for miles around. I guess I let it go to my head?" Harry said with a shrug.

"I don't think it's a bad thing Harry. You're happy. You have a job you were made for. It caters to all of your strengths. Your need to protect people, your code of right and wrong, your love of action, and your skill set. You get to save your small part of the world every week and people thank you for it." Abby said.

"I really do love it when people tip their hat to me in the streets and call me Marshal. We should be coming up on the city soon. It should be right on the other side of these mountains." Harry said pointing to the snow covered rockies. It was snowing lightly on this side of the rockies.

Sure enough on the other side of the mountains was a walled city. Unlike Salt Lake this city looked square and not round. It also had farm land inside the walls. It was almost like they knew they would need more space in the future so they built the wall bigger. Harry dropped in low and landed in a snow covered field outside of the wall. He did a quick scan to make sure they were safe before they got out of the plane. Harry shrank the still invisible plane and set it in his pill box of mission cars. Looking at the small cars made him wonder if Abby was right. Had he forgotten about his future? Not really. He knew the reason he was so deep into the world was because he had to be. It was his job. They switched out their jackets for their long coats and took their broom to the heart of the city. Using a point me spell Harry located the marshal's office.

After checking in with the local marshals he set up a portkey anchor and called his sister who was not expecting his call for another hour.

"Yeah, I forgot about my plane. We flew for an hour in the freezing cold and then I remembered the plane. Abby made me fly the rest of the way here." Harry said.

"We should have flown the whole way." Abby said from her place next to him.

"Well we're not ready to go yet. We just made breakfast and Smith isn't here yet. We'll pop over in a half hour like we planned. We'll see you in a bit." She said.

"Make sure you wear your heavy winter gear. It's cold as hell and snowing. Get Smith and Alice a fur lined snake skin coat and vest. They should also be armed. This whole city looks like south lowtown. Not bad but there looks like to potential for danger." Harry said.

"You know I'm not totally useless. I can handle myself in a fight." Alice said in the background.

"I never said you couldn't but you should wear a vest anytime you leave town. Plus as town Mayor your safety is on us as your protection detail. We're your town marshals Ma'am." Harry said with a smile.

"Good boy. I'll wear the coat and vest. It's going to clash with my nice dress and robes but I'll wear it." She said.

"We'll handle it Harry, see you in a bit." Hermione said hanging up.

"So what do we do for a half hour?" Abby asked.

"We can explore the city or wait in the nice warm marshal's office." Harry said.

"Maybe we can do both. There's Marshal White. Maybe he can give us some directions." She said as the marshal rode up to the front of the fort style building cluster that made up the marshal's office.

"The Marshals Steel! What can I do for you on this cold and terrible morning?" Walter asked hopping off his horse and handing it off to the stable hand that ran the small barn next to the marshal's main office that housed their horses.

"We had a few errands to run and so we thought we might try out your fair city." Harry said.

"Fair my ass. This city is rough as hell. We got the same problem as Salt Lake. Too many people and not enough straight coppers." Walter said leading them into the office and into the back where his office was.

"What's the numbers looking like?" Harry asked.

"Last count we did we were somewhere over three quarters of a million people. But we have somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 tourists coming through here at any given time. Folks staying over night to catch a different airship to the west or the south. People coming to visit relatives in town. Just folks passing through. Plus we get seasonal workers who come through every year to act as extra miners, mercenaries, farmhands, or deck hands for airships. We have a good sized sheriff's department. Close to a thousand deputies. The problem is half of them are as crooked as they come. And we can't do much about it. We have our hands full with the harsh lands around here. We got hordes of undead, huge fucking spiders, dragons, and king snakes. In fact we got a really bad king snake infestation to the west in the mountains. We took a week off and everything outside this city went to shit. Sorry for the language ma'am." Walter said remembering he was in mixed company.

"No need to apologise marshal, the situation sounds fucked up." Abby said.

"It is. On top of that all my men have the next two days off to recover from the long hours we pulled in Salt Lake. We've got three times the work and just the small staff we left here to keep our city from fucking itself. Also these guys are pissed because they had to pull double shifts to just keep the lights on here in town." Walter said looking dead.

"Well if you need someone to take care of your king snake problem we would be happy to take that off your plate along with anything else you need to get done. As you saw we work fast and efficient. Like I said we had a few things to do today but once we set up a portkey anchor in your office the trip to and from this city will take a matter of seconds. We can even set you up with a portkey to Salt Lake and Eureka if you like?" Harry asked.

"You can just do that?" Walter asked.

"We can. In fact Abby can you take Walter to Eureka and see if the rest of our group is ready to port over? I'll set up a few sets of portkeys and we'll set up the network for him in the next few days." Harry asked.

"Sure, come on Walt. let's go for a ride." Abby said taking the thick steel credit card that said Eureka on it out of her pocket and held it out to Walter.

They were gone fifteen minutes. When they got back they landed in the main bullpen area and saw Harry talking to a few other marshals, having a cup of coffee, and joking.

"That was crazy. How does it work?" Walter asked Harry.

"Magic. Like I said we have a few errands to run but if you want us to handle a few of the more dangerous jobs you can't or don't want to do we'd be happy to help. You came to Salt Lake in their time of need and I want to return the favor." Harry said.

"I'll look at what we have and I'll make you a list. We don't have much in the way of funds on us at the moment for the Marshal work…" Walter said.

"It's on us, like I said, a thank you for the time you guys put in to help Salt Lake. If Marshal Chuck Copeland could spare the manpower he would do the same. Oh and this is the portkey to Eureka, and this one is for Salt Lake. We'll drop off the anchors later. Figure two days until you can use them. Activation words are 'i want to go to' and say the name on the card." Harry said handing over two steel cards.

"Thank you Harry." He said tucking the cards into his jacket.

"Also don't mess with this brick of steel with Denver on it. It's the anchor for this city." Harry said pointing out the brick on a desk off to the side of the room.

"I'll make sure everyone knows." Walter said looking at the brick.

"Good, we'll see you in a bit." Harry said leading his group out the front door. They expanded their horses. In Alice and Smith's cases their borrowed hoses.

"Now where are we headed?" Hermione asked pulling on her heavy leather gloves.

"You and I are headed to the patent office which is just down the street from here to file the patents. Alice the magical district is east of here six blocks and north three blocks you and Abby get the shopping out of the way please and thank you. And Smith there are three good gun shops in town but they are in opposite directions. Two are west and south of here and the other one is in the magical district. I figured you and Neville could head out with Alice and Abby to the magical district first and then head off from there. We'll all meet up at a small dinner two blocks north of here called Apple Jack's. The guys said they have a good lunch menu. From there we'll see where we're at. I want to handle a few jobs for the marshal's here. They said they had a king snake infestation in the mountains. For us that's just more king snake meat and skin. My goal is to make a vest for every marshal we know and hand them out with the guns. For the most part the vests like the guns are almost free." Harry said.

"Well let's get a move on. Call us if something goes wrong or if anyone needs help." Hermione said.

Everyone scattered to different parts of the city and had different levels of success in their endeavors. Harry and Hermione spent the better part of the morning going through the boring process of filing for a patent for the three models of guns they were going to mass produce one day. It took a bit of coin and a lot of paperwork but three hours after they walked into the patent office they walked out with copies of the three patents they filed. From that point on they would have to refer to the guns by their new names. The Lemat revolver was now officially the B&S Model 1. The S&W 686 was now the B&S Model 2. And the colt detective was now the B&S Model 3. With the stamped documents they could now start handing out guns without fear of someone patenting their design. And after going through the steps three times that day, with almost no help from Harry, Hermione knew how to file for a patent. So the next time they wanted to do something she just had to show up at the patent office with a working prototype and fill out the paperwork.

Abby and Alice had a mixed bag of luck with the shopping they had to do. They found a few shops in the magical district that had some of the supplies they needed at a good price but for the most part the Denver magical shopping district was the New Jersey to Salt Lake city's New York. But it took them a few hours to come to that conclusion. They did however find a good magical junk shop that had a huge six foot wide five foot tall caldron for making commercial sized batches of potions for $100. It was a bargain considering it was a cauldron you would have to custom order. They also found a magical blacksmith that sold red brass by the 10 pound ingot for a dollar. The brass was not up to the level Harry could make with the spell but it was more than passable for the enchantments and magical ammo they would use it for. They took all 147 ingots he had on hand.

Neville and Smith were not having a good time. They stopped off at the three gun stores and they were only able to sell off a few dozen guns at a good price. The problem was the same one they ran into in Salt Lake. You could only have so many plane jane colt single actions in the store before you're at full stock. You see out in the wild west guns were as prevalent as dangerous shit that wanted to eat you. Everyone had a gun and they only needed the one. For most people they bought a revolver and a gun belt and wore it everyday incase they needed it but they never did. If you lived in the city and you kept yourself out of trouble then you never needed to use the gun.

That being said every store owner wanted a closer look at Neville and Smith's B&S guns. Those were something new. Something exciting they could sell to customers. At the end of their shopping trip they ended up selling off 76 revolvers for $1,368. Not bad for junk they found in the wild. Still they did have 5 big trunks full of guns and the inventory just kept getting bigger everyday. They averaged 5 revolvers and a rifle or shotgun every week. 90% of the time it was junk and it made it into the junk guns trunks. By last count they had 719 revolvers, 181 rifles, and 213 shotguns in the junk guns trunks. It was all shit that had to go. They knew if they wanted to get rid of it all then they needed to head east where guns were less prevalent.

They met up at the small cafe and had a good meat and potato stew for lunch. After they ate they split up again with half the group, Hermione, Alice, and Smith, heading to Salt lake to finish the shopping trip and Harry, Neville, and Abby heading to the marshal's office to see what he had for them. Harry was expecting a short list of jobs they could do for them. He was presented with a long list of shit that needed to be done.

"Do what you can. Each job has a cash value to the mayor or a bounty put on their heads from the courts and banks. A few of those bounties were people we just let take over their little corner of the city because we didn't have the manpower or skills to take them on. As you can see there is a lot of coin on this list." Walter said and he wasn't kidding. There were 8 jobs on the list. four of the jobs were just a general area outside the city with the type of pest problem they had with small cash values:

Hoard of undead to the southeast of the city. Estimated number: more than 50. $200.

Nest of huge spiders north of the city. Estimated number: 6-8. $600

Nest of young dragons south west of the city in the mountains. Estimated number: 2-3. $400

Nest of Diamondback Kingsnakes. North west of the city in the mines. Estimated number:5-7. $800

The other four jobs were very high value bounties:

The Baker Brothers: John Baker $5,000, Billy Baker $6,000, Tommy Baker $7,000 dead or alive. $100 each for their gang dead or alive. Estimated gang size: 30

Luke Rawlings $5,000 and his gang $200 a head dead or alive. Estimated gang size: 10

Crazy Jack Digger $4,000 and his gang $250 a head for his gang dead or alive. Estimated gang size: 6

One Eyed Jack Harper, captain of the Night Wolf. $10,000 and his crew $250 a head dead or alive. Estimated crew size: 40

Harry did a quick count in his head this was $53,500 in bounties. There was another $2,000 in creature removal.

"I figured you could take care of a few of the pest infestations and one of the bounties to make up for the danger." Walter said looking at the list.

"This is a big list. We'll do most of this today." Harry said looking it over.

"If you can handle most of that you would save this city from some really bad guys. Guys we can't touch without fear of losing half my men. The court and the bank would be happy to pay out these bounties. These are some of the worst men in the west and they came here because they know the sheriff is too corrupt to come after them and we marshals are too few in number to come after them. Those facts and the consistent flow of cash and goods that come through the city make this place a gold mine for trash like these men." Walter said looking pissed off. Years of frustration over letting these scumbags run roughshod over the city had taken a toll on him.

"We'll take care of it. Start off by telling me where these men stay in the city and what we're walking into." Harry said sitting back in his chair as Neville and Abby looked over the list.

"The Bakers have a house on the edge of town by the north wall. The place is a fortress. The house is brick, and it's surrounded by big stone walls with barbed wire on top. A heavy gate out front with a big deadbolt lock. A heavy reinforced front door. Boarded up windows and guards patrolling the grounds and on the roof. The Baker boys rob people on the road. Stagecoaches and what have you. They must have a tunnel out of the city because we never see them leave the house. We just get reports of shot up stagecoaches and supply wagons from Boulder, Loveland, and Wyoming. People know not to travel the road north of here without armed escort and even then you might end up dead and robbed of your goods. We think there are about 30 of them. They would need that many men to get the loot back to the house. That's also why we never tried to take the house. We don't know what kind of number's were looking at. Could be 30, could be 60. We're not sure and I'm not willing to risk my 50 men to go charging at that house to find out." Walter said.

"Good to know. We'll take a look at it. What's with this Captain Jack Harper?" Neville asked.

"He's a pirate. He captains an old dreadnought cargo airship that he modified. It's fast, it's well armored and very well armed. He and his crew take out airships. They get close to an airship, they take out the ship's guns, and they board the ship. If it's carrying a shipment they take most of it. If it's a passenger ship they rob the passengers. They must have a hiding place in the mountains somewhere. The ship is full of magic and almost impossible to bring down." Walter said.

"Why hasn't the Navy taken them out yet?" Harry asked.

"They managed to stay off the government's shit list. They don't fuck with the mail, they don't mess with Navy ships, and they only kill people that shoot at them. In fact if you see them coming and you let them board without a fight they act mostly cordial. The real reason they have such a big bounty on them is the shipping companies are tired of losing shipments to them. Also if you fight they fight back, and you all die. I have no idea where they hide the ship. They must have a cave or something. It's an older dreadnought class armed cargo ship. It's got to be about 150 foot long, 75 foot wide in the middle and 30 foot tall. It's shaped like an arrow and it's magical as hell. It has belt fed gatling guns and hotchkiss 2 pound guns. We've seen ships full of holes after they encountered the nightwolf." Walter said.

"What about this Luke Rawlings?" Harry asked looking at the paper.

"He's a local thug, he shakes down business and casinos in the city for protection money. He's a wizard and so are his boys. They live in the top floor of the mountain view hotel. The top floor is covered by wards and they all have body armor like you guys wear." Walter said pointing to the vest Harry was wearing.

"And I'm guessing Crazy Jack is crazy?" Neville said.

"You bet your ass he is, so are his boys. They ride into town every few weeks and rob or try to rob the banks here in town. They're hold up in Dove Valley. It's a small town south of here. It used to be a mining town, now it's a safe haven for rif raf. Just about everyone in that small town is running from someone. That's why they stay there. They know the law ain't coming to that small town. You shoot your way in and you ain't shootin your way out." Walter said.

"Best guess on the town size?" Harry asked writing this all down.

"About 150-175 people." Walter said.

"Okay. We'll handle some of this today and we'll come back tomorrow to finish it." Harry said looking at the list.

"I knew I could count on you guys for this." Walter said shaking Harry's hand.

"Don't go congratulating us just yet. We have to clean house first. Come on you two we got work to do." Harry said leading them out of the office.

"So what's first?" Abby asked.

"You two go north and track down these spiders. I'm headed south to find the hoard of undead. Then we'll meet up and head into the mountains to find the nest of king snakes and dragons." Harry said mounting his broom.

"We'll call you when we're done. Good hunting." Neville said mounting his broom with Abby following his lead.

The pest control was, for the most part easy. Harry found and took out the 57 undead from the air in fifteen minutes. He summoned anything good off the bodies and burned them before heading towards the mountains. Neville and Abby used tracking spells to find the nest of 6 really big spiders. They flushed them out of the cave with a fireball and took them out from their brooms with their winchester rifles.

The 2 young dragons found them as they searched for their nest. They were mexican orange dragons about 15 foot long with a 20 foot wingspan. Harry and Neville, having had their 500 nitro rifles out as they looked for the nest spotted the two young dragons as they came at them. They took two shots and they were collecting and transfiguring the dragons for transport and harvesting.

The kingsnakes gave them a bit of a hassle. They were hiding in caves in the base of the mountains. Harry scanned the cave and found seven kingsnakes. Harry transfigured a few trees into wandering cows walking around the entrance of the cave and sure enough it was enough to draw out the seven big snakes. Three of the seven were 18 foot long and 4 foot wide three were smaller, coming in at about 12 foot long and 2 foot wide but the last king snake that came out was fucking huge. 30 foot long 4.5 foot wide and it took a shot from the 500 nitro rifle to take him down. They turned the snakes into hoses, boxed them up, and sent them to Hermione who was helping Alice, Kate, and her workers gut and skin the dragons. Harry checked the time and saw it was just after two in the afternoon. They had two hours of sunlight left.

They headed to the north wall and using tracking charms they found the house where the Baker gang called home. The property was surrounded by a 10 foot tall stone wall topped with barbed wire. The only gate was a thick wrought iron door that was bolted into the stone wall and had a big dead bolt and lock holding it closed. The brick and stone house had boarded up windows and the front door was thick oak with heavy metal binding and hinges. Harry clocked 4 men walking around the small grounds that surrounded the house and 2 men on the roof.

Harry put on his cloak and tested the house to see if there were wards up. There weren't any. He popped up to the roof of the two story house and took out both men on the roof with head shots from his Sig226. He then took out the four men walking around with head shots before they could figure out what was going on. He turned all six men into coins before summoning them to him. He cast the one way spell to see what the inside looked like. The attic was empty.

Harry vanished a hole in the roof and dropped inside. He cast the one way spell on different parts of the attic floor and saw six bedrooms and two bathrooms. They were mostly empty. The exception being six men sleeping in two dark rooms with the shutters drawn and heavy drapes covering the windows. These six must be the night watch guys. Harry called in his findings and soon Abby and Neville were in the attic with him. Harry vanished a hole in the ceiling of one of the dark rooms and slipped down into the bedroom he shot all three men with his Sig226. Turned them into coins and waved the other two down. Harry slipped out of the room with them following him. He vanished the door to the next room and shot all three men before they could wake up. Neville turned them into coins and added them to a sack with the coins Harry had.

Harry walked down the stairs making sure to step lightly to not make the stairs creek. The staircase lead into the front hallway with the living room to the left and a dining room to the right. Both rooms were empty. Harry found three doors at the other end of the hallway. One was the empty bathroom, the other was a study that looked like it doubled as a loot room. And the last room was the kitchen. Harry found four men eating at a small table. They slipped into the room and each of them took a shot. Harry got the last guy before looting the bodies, and turning them into coins. In the kitchen they found a door to the cellar.

Harry lead and they followed him into the well lit wine cellar and dry goods storage. On the back wall was a hole and a well lit mine shaft like tunnel. They followed the tunnel for a few hundred feet before it sloped up and widened out into a cave. That's where they found twelve more men sitting at tables playing cards and talking. All the men had gun belts and most of the had a shotgun or rifle near by. There was a door to the cave and a man was standing by the door. The three hidden marshals took out the twelve men in seconds. Harry looted the bodies and turned them into coins as Neville checked the door. He flung the door open and shot five more men. They looted them, turned them into coins, and popped back to the house. They spent the next ten minutes looting the house of all the stolen money, guns, ammo, food, and booze before they headed back to the office. They handed over the 33 dead bodies just after three and got a standing ovation from the Marshals.

"We ain't done yet." Harry said leading them back out of the office with a smirk.

They headed to the mountain view hotel. It was a five floor brick hotel in the middle of the city. Harry clocked a man on the roof and two men in the lobby. All three men had dragonhide vests, gun belts, and shotguns. The hotel it self had wards and the top floor was practically glowing with anti apparition wards and protection wards but not anti portkey wards.

"One up two down?" Harry asked Neville.

"Two up one down." Neville said looking at the building.

"Teams?" Harry asked.

"Me and you up and Abby down. Abby can handle it." Neville said.

"Fair enough. Stealth or loud?" Harry asked.

"You two going to finish a sentence anytime soon?" Abby asked with a smirk.

"Very loud. Flash bangs and Model 1s. We're also going right through the fucking windows." Neville said ignoring the quip as he pulled a black bag with rope out of his bag.

"Okay, let's do it. Abby, we're going to attack from the top. We need you to take out the two guards in the lobby. Walk in under your cloak and drop them both. Then hold the lobby. We'll come down with the rest." Harry said pulling three flash bangs out of his bag.

He hung two of them off his gun belt and handed one to Neville. He turned two small rocks into a set of portkeys and handed one to his brother. Both men popped to the roof of the casino next door.

"Let's do it." Harry said holding the other stone in his left hand and his knife in his right.

Neville threw the stone onto the roof of the hotel and grabbed the other stone in Harry's hand as Harry activated the portkey. They landed on the roof of the hotel and Harry slipped up behind the guard. He grabbed him around his head with his hand over his mouth and slit his throat. He waited a few seconds for him to stop moving before he set him down. He saw Neville anchoring two ropes to a corner of the roof. Harry jogged over, took off his cloak, put it away and grabbed the rope Neville handed him. He looked over the edge and pulled ten foot of rope out of the bag. He set up on the edge of the roof as he tide the rope around his ass with a half hitch. He pulled his model 1 and looked at his brother who was set up just like he was on the adjacent side of the hotel.

Harry winked at him slipped over the edge. He dropped down right next to a window. He looked in and saw an office with three men. One behind the desk and two sitting in chairs. Harry smashed the window with his gun shattering the glass. He tossed the flashbang into the broken window as three men rushed into the room with guns out. Harry pushed off with all his might and swung out ten feet as the flashbang went off. He busted through the broken window and pulled loose the half hitch as he swung into the room dropping him to he feet in a standing crouch a second before Neville busted through his window. They both took advantage of the six deaf and blind men. Harry dropped three of them with head shots as Neville took out the other three.

Harry rushed to the open door and checked the hall with Neville right behind him. In the hall they split up and started kicking in doors. It took them just two minutes to clear the other ten rooms on the floor. They found four other men. Once the floor was clear Harry headed down the stairs to check the rest of the hotel as Neville cleaned up the bodies and the loot which included a big magical safe. It took just ten minutes from popping to the roof next door to the last all clear and just twenty minutes from the last stack of bodies they dropped off at the marshal's office until they walked back in. The marshal's were so shocked they didn't clap so much as stare at them with slack jaws.

"Luke Rawlings and his gang. Also your count was off by one. He had eleven men. We're going to take a quick break and then look for the pirates. Can you have the judge fill out the the paperwork for these two groups?" Harry asked.

"We're already processing the Baker gang and this is the $2,000 we owe you for the pest control you guys did earlier. You asked for $50 gold coins. Here you go." Walter said handing him a small canvas sack with the bank logo. Inside the bag was 40 $50 gold coins. Harry liked the gold coins. They were easy to carry and pay for things.

"Thanks Walter." Harry said taking the sack. "We'll be back later." Harry said leading his team out. They stopped off at a nice steak house and had a good meal as they plotted out their next course of action.

"You think he has a base in the mountains?" Neville asked.

"No, the ship is too big. But he could have magical cloaking on the ship like our planes. They float around all day over the mountains under the cloaking charm and then when they see a ship they drop the cloaking and go after it. We just have to find the cloaked ship." Harry said.

"How are we going to do that?" Abby asked.

"Well if the ship is cloaked then that means it has wards to stop people from just finding it with a tracking spell." Neville said.

"But if they saw a ship full of cargo?" Harry asked with a shrug.

"Where are we going to get a cargo ship?" Abby asked.

"I'm going to make one. A fake one and we're going to float it from Boulder or Loveland to the air dock. As soon as they drop cloaking we attack them. Abby, I'm going to need you to float the ship as we sneak attack. We're going in under our cloaks with MP5s. We're not fucking around. I want that ship. If it big enough for 40 men and all the loot they took then it can house us with ease. I want to keep the ship operational with the guns ready. If we ever run into something really bad then having our own battleship will come in handy. But for now we'll use it as a way to get around. We can move out of the cube and use the ship as a floating home or we can shrink it and only take it out when we need to travel somewhere. Either way we just saved a bunch of money because we don't have to buy an airship now." Harry said with a smirk as they finished dinner.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: sorry this took two weeks but with the last two weekends being holidays (Super Bowl and Valentine's Day) i didn't have time to type anything. We also missed three Sunday game sessions which means i ran out of plot to put up. The good news is i have been penning out a chapter 58 for Investigator Harry Steel. I have a few pages locked in and as ideas fall in line i'm adding them. At some point i'll start trying to post once a week for either this story or that one until i finish that one off, or my players give up on this one and i have to close it out.

An hour later at half past five found a big cargo ship floating through dark skies with a light ball spell lighting it's way headed to Denver. The ship was a 100 foot long, 60 foot wide, and 30 foot tall. It moved at a steady slow pace drifting along looking like it was loaded down with cargo. Unfortunately the ship was not loaded with cargo. It was a 10 foot model ship Harry made from a tree with an expansion charm on it. The black ship that appeared in the sky 5 miles off to the port side did not know that. They also didn't know Harry and Neville were approaching them at top speed under invisibility cloaks.

The ship was beautiful and sleek. It looked more like a airplane or a spaceship then a naval ship. It was flat and shaped like a broad headed spear with the tips curved down forming wings with the trailing tips acting as ailerons and a hooked beak nose. There were two small vertical wings sticking out of the top towards the back of the ship and they too were curved in. The ship was all black steel with three hooded propellers in the back lower part of the ship being fed by intake ducts. In fact the only breaks in the black steel was the small egg shaped observation deck bubble in the top of the ship and it was covered in a thick steel roof with short thick windows.

They flew under the ship and found the clamshell style doors built into the sides of the ship, two artillery gun pods that faced down in the middle of the ship on the centerline, and the cockpit which was at the front of the ship under the hooked nose overhang. There were six big windows that formed a windshield. They could see the pilot and copilot inside the cockpit. The ship was moving at a good clip and they were almost on top of the fake ship at this point. They flew up next to the decoy ship and eight gun ports opened on the side of the ship. 6 gatling guns and two breech loading artillery guns were pushed into place.

"Halt and prepare to be boarded!" A loud voice called out. To emphasize their point they fired across the deck of the fake ship with a short burst from a gatling gun.

The fake ship stopped and hovered. They came in closer until their left wing was over the deck of the fake ship. The clamshell door under the wing dropped down and extended to a ramp and 20 men dressed in mixed match cowboy attire with revolvers in hand and swords on their belts hopped off the ramp and ran around the ship looking for the crew. Harry and Neville flew into the ramp door and looked at the men. Their outfits kind of killed the pirate thing for Harry but what could you do?

When he felt Abby close by. Harry dropped the transfiguration of the fake ship and the twenty men and a log fell 200 feet to their deaths screaming all the way down. As soon as the boat vanished the cargo doors started closing so all three of them flew deeper inside the ship. Inside was a huge triangle shaped cargo bay that was 100 foot wide, 200 foot long, and 20 foot tall. The inside of the ship was steel beams and wood construction and lit like most things by magical gas lamps. It was obvious the ship was expanded on the inside and full of charms.

The cargo bay was packed with crates. There were eight men in the cargo bay standing on a balcony that housed the guns. They were shouting at each other about what just happened. Harry flew up and took them out plunging the cargo bay into silence. He landed in the middle of the cargo bay after doing a fly over to check to make sure no one was left as he flew over he found three more men coming from the staircase leading down stairs. Harry dropped them transfigured them and summoned the coins. He lowered his hood so the other two could see him and they followed his lead as they landed close by.

"I'm heading to the cockpit." Harry said pointing to the stairs at the front of the cargo bay on the right side that went down. "Nev take the observation deck." He said pointing to the stairs leading up on the left side. "Abby hold the cargo bay. There should only be 15 men left." Harry said pulling up his hood and vanishing.

He headed down the staircase off to the side and came out into a 10 foot wide hallway that ran the length of the ship which on this level was about 150 foot long. He could see 8 doors down the hall, 5 on the left and 3 on the right, across from the stairs was a door marked armory, but he was more concerned with the door at the end of the hall right next to the stairs.

The door was thick steel with heavy bolt locks, unfortunately the door was open and the two men manning the cockpit were sitting right there. The cockpit looked like the cockpit of a WWII bomber. There were two seats, two yoke style steering wheels, and a counsel in the center of the two chairs full of brass levers. Harry stunned the two men which stopped the ship from moving. They were essentially hovering 200 foot off the ground. He turned the two pilots into coins and put them in a separate pocket from the dead guys as he heard the distant sound of a flash bang going off. Neville was taking care of his guys.

He checked the rooms up and down the hall next. The first 2 doors down the hall on the right side and 3 doors on the left side were were crew bunks. Each room was 30x30 foot and had ten beds, five to a side. Each bed had a wardrobe, dresser, and foot locker. At the back of each room was a 10x30 bathroom with five toilet stalls, five sinks, and five shower stalls. The last door on the right was a big 40x70 mess hall with five tables. Four long tables and a smaller officer's table. At the back of the room was a 40x20 foot kitchen with a long range five ovens, and a huge magical walk in chiller. He found three three men dressed in kitchen whites hiding in the big walk in pantry that looked freaked out. He stunned them turned them into coins and put them in the same pocket with the pilots.

The other two doors on the left were officer's quarters. The big 40x30 foot rooms were sectioned off by walls into a 25x20 foot office with a desk with three chairs, a map table, a couch and two wingback chairs, and wall to wall bookshelves. In the corner behind the desk was a big 4 foot tall 2 foot wide 2 foot deep safe. A 10x5 foot bathroom with a sink, toilet, and shower separated the office from the 25x20 foot bedroom with a big king sized bed, dressers, a wardrobe, and a table with four chairs.

The second officer's quarters was turned into a rec room for the crew. The room was gutted and rearranged. The bathroom was pushed to the back of the room and it now had 6 toilet stalls and two sinks. The big 20x50 foot room had a full bar, two pool tables, five card tables and a player piano. Harry smirked, this room was staying.

At the end of the long main hallway was two trapdoors. Harry opened the back trap door and found the aft air to ground 2 pounder hotchkiss gun in a small 6 foot round room. The turret room was cramped with the big gun mounted to the ceiling along with the platform you stood on and the shell rack for ammo storage. The floor was built like an upside down conservatory roof. He could only imagine firing the gun in this small room was like. He closed the turret room trap door and lifted the other door. He found five very frightened men dressed in grease covered overalls in a dimly lit 50x20 foot engine room that was cramped and hot thanks to the three big magical bollers, steam turbines, and prop shafts. Harry stunned them, turned them into coins, and summoned them. He scanned the room and found no one else.

He checked the armory last. Inside the 10x20 foot room had racks of rifles, shotguns, revolvers, and swords. Half the inventory was missing but it was still impressive. Under each of the weapons racks were 6 ammo crates and the back wall was big stack of ammo crates, 10 crates high, 10 crates wide, and 5 crates deep. Between the ammo crates in this room, the ammo crates in the cargo bay, and all the ammo they got from the other two jobs they did Harry was sure they never had to worry about ammo ever again. Next to the door to the room was a trapdoor to the front air to ground gun. The turret pod was set up like the aft pod but this one had a belt fed 5 barrel rotating 37mm hotchkiss gun. Abby came down the stairs with her hood down.

"We're all clear Harry. What now?" Abby asked.

"Now we question the pilots, cooks, and engineers." Harry said leading her up to the cargo bay where he found Neville. How many did you get?"

"11 and the captain, you?" Neville asked handing over the coins.

"10 prisoners but no hostels. That brings the count up to 42 and captain Jack." Harry said as he made ten chairs and tied the two pilots, three cooks, and five engineers to them.

He woke each one up and got their story. In each case it was the same story. Each man was crew on a ship Captain Jack hit. He gave them a choice, join the crew or die. In every case they chose to live and serve. In every case they were treated like slaves and beaten until they complied with the orders given. The cooks were lead by a french man named John Philippe Perrot "call me Phil" he and his two cooks came from a luxury cruise ship. They were captured a year and a half ago. The engineers were a family that came from a cargo ship their spokesmen was the boy's father William Young 42 his four sons were 22,21,20, and 19. They had been on the nightwolf for two years. The pilots were 24 year old twin brothers Tommy and Bobby Newton that came from a private yacht that also lost to the nightwolf. They were with the crew for three years and at this point they just followed orders. All of them had some magic and in both families cases these were the only family members they had left. Harry looked each man in the eye and one by one he nodded his head.

"I can see all of you were slaves taken against your will. You have two options, take a small cut of the reward money and be on your way or stay on and you'll be given quarters both on the ship and on the ground and you'll be paid $3,000 a year with $1,000 in back pay and days off. In the down time when the ship is not flying you'll be free to do as you like with your time." Harry said.

One by one they all joined. Harry sent the cooks back to their rooms and told them to hang tight. He sent the pilot's back to the cockpit and and the engineers back to the engine room told them to head to the edge of town and wait for him. Harry flew down and collected the dead bodies of the crew and flew back to the marshal's office. He dropped off the crew of the nightwolf at the marshal's office and Walter just laughed.

"My God Harry. You guys work fast!" He said.

"We try. Also we get lucky. Half the crew walked into a trap. The other half were quickly taken care of. The count is 42 and captain Jack. Also on the ship we found three cooks, two pilots, and five engineers that were being held captive. We also have the ship, intact, and still flying. I think we're going to keep the ship and use it as a support ship and transport. If you ever need air support we'll be there to back you up. We could have used it last week to pick you guys up or the army and we could have squashed that crime wave in one day. But at the moment the huge cargo bay is full of crates. It's going to be a week of cleaning it out before we can even use it. We're going to get this crazy Jack Digger guy next and then we're going to head home. Is there anyone else in Dove Valley we should grab?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, all of them. The town is a hub of crime. Of the 150 people in that town I bet 148 of them are the worst criminals in the state and the other two are trying to be the worst criminals in the state. If it was up to me I'd fire bomb the town and let god sort them out. If you grabbed any ten guys off the streets and we ran their names over the wire we'd come back with warrants for all of them. You guys did more than enough. Just leave that one be. It's not worth the money to even try." Walter said.

"If that's the case then we'll hit the town early tomorrow morning and head home now. We're way too tired to arrest all those guys tonight." Harry said letting the the stress and power drain of the day seep in. He reached into his bag and pulled out the flask of Highland Park 25 year old scotch. He took a deep swig and lit a small cigar. He offered the flask to Walter who took a drink.

"You think you clean out the whole town?" Walter asked.

"We can, we just need to be full power. I'm guessing the residents of Dove Valley are not morning people?" Harry asked.

"Wild parties every night. The town is dead during the day, but the second you fire a shot in that town you're fucked." Walter said.

"We're not planning on shooting anyone we don't have to. I'll see you tomorrow." Harry said standing.

"Yeah, I should have the payment for the Baker gang and Rawlings and his boys for you by the morning. Gold coins right?" Walter said.

"If you can, paper cash if you have to. I don't trust it." Harry said walking out.

He flew up to the ship which was hovering outside of town and once he was on board he sat in the cockpit with the pilots.

"Boys I need the facts on this here ship. How fast can she go?" Harry asked.

"Packed to the brim like she is now? We've done 350 miles and hour. But empty I bet she could do 425, maybe more. The ship is lightened to almost nothing. The only weight she has is the cargo and the crew she carries. Empty she's got the potential to be very fast. With the three big steam props pushing full power I bet she tops out at 450." Tommy said.

"Maybe more if the magical steam engines were cleaned and maintained better, it's something Will has been asking the captain for down time to do the job for weeks." Bobby said.

"Good to know. Can she land or just hover like the boat style ships?" Harry asked.

"She can land. She has three legs that fold out." Bobby said.

"Good, land by that flat bit of road and shut her down. Then go get your things. We're going to shrink the ship and portkey back to town. Tell the rest of the crew we're leaving." Harry said.

"Yes Captain." Tommy said taking the ship off hover and taking them down. Bobby lowered the landing gear and Tommy set them down with barely a bump Harry patted them on the back as they shut down the ship.

"Good job boys." Harry said.

Harry cleaned out the armory by shrinking everything and putting it in his bag. When they all got off the ship Harry waved at the big black ship and shrank it by 100 times its size making the ship 18 inches long which shocked the crew of the ship. He held out the portkey and they all vanished. They landed in the marshal's office and Harry lead them to Sam's bar. He handed each man $100 in $5 coins and handed Sam the bartender the same thing.

"Sam these are my crew, you make sure they have a good meal and enough to drink before they head off to bed. Boys don't stay up too late or drink too much tonight, we have a job in the morning but after that you'll be paid and you'll be free to explore the town." Harry said patting the men on the back.

They headed out to the farm and saw Hermione, Alice, Kate, and her guys working on what had to be the last king snake. Harry expanded the ship in the field and took a look around the cargo bay to see what they had. From the labels on some of the crates Harry found weapons, ammo, leather, furs, cloth, ivory, dragon hide, claws, and bones and magical things like potion ingredients, and enchantment tools. 25 pound bars of gold, silver, lead, steel, and brass. But most of all food. Lots and lots of food.

As he walked around the cargo bay he got a feel for the organisation of it all. The front half of the cargo bay was all food. The crates were left open so the cook staff had access to it. There were stacks of big 50 pound sacks of flour, rice, cornmeal, black beans, coffee beans, sugar, and salt. They also had smaller sacks with other spices like black pepper, turmeric, and dried garlic. In big crates under preservation charms they had potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, apples, pears, bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, bell peppers, and chillies. In smaller crates under cold charms they had eggs, bottles of milk, cheese wheels, blocks of butter, and dozens of crates of meat. They had crates of wine bottles, crates of whiskey, and big kegs of beer. At first Harry was confused by the amount of food and then he thought about it. There were 53 men on the ship. That was 53 hungry mouths to feed everyday three times a day. That was 159 plates a day.

Harry packed up the bars of metal, a few bolts of cloth, leather, fur, and all the dragon parts along with the huge crate of elephant ivory tusks. He also took the crates of guns and all the small arms ammo but he made sure to leave any crates with artillery rounds and the belts of .45-70 for the gatling guns. He had Abby check the charms on the food.

"These are good charms Harry. This stuff will keep for years like this." She said.

"Good we can keep this on the ship for now." Harry said taking a few sacks full of fruit, vegetables, and dairy. He shrank the ship and helped them gather all the rest of the trunks full of dragon and king snake. They made it back to the cube at 8 and Harry was so tired he just dumped all the things he got in the storage room before heading off to bed.

The next morning at nine Harry, Neville, Abby, and the crew minus the cooks portkeyed back to Denver. They traveled outside the city and Harry expanded the ship. They got on and flew to Dove Valley just a few dozen miles south of the city walls. Harry had william and his sons man the air to ground guns and he had the twins fly in low over the town with the ship cloaked. Neville gave them his phone and they kept the line open.

Harry, Neville and Abby flew down to the town under their cloaks and set up the ward stones around the outer wall. Then they landed at the back of town. They walked into the first building which was a small shack house and found a man and woman in bed. Harry stunned the two of then, bound their hands with rope and turned them into coins as Neville and Abby searched the house. They repeated this process for the hour as they made their way to the front gate.

In the end they didn't have to kill anyone and they had 158 prisoners for the marshal's to sort out as well as the town to sack. Harry summoned all money and coins in the town as well as the guns and ammo. They came away with a huge haul. They landed the nightwolf and shrank it. Harry sent them back to Eureka with the shrunken ship and took the prisoners to the Marshal's office.

When Walter saw him he laughed and shook his head. His laughter died in his throat as Harry started dropping the transfigurations on the coins. The marshals scrambled to get the prisoners into the four big cells and the big cage they had in the office. It would take them a week for the marshal's process, and look up these men and women.

"Fuck Harry, you weren't kidding when you said you were going to arrest the whole town." Walter said handing him a very heavy canvas bank bag full of gold coins. "The reward for the Baker gang and Rawlings and his men. $28,200 or 564 gold $50 coins. I counted them myself. It was fun to play with that many gold coins. It's enough gold to buy a city block full of houses and it's half of what we owe you." Walter said.

"Well to make up for the loss of four really high value bounties you now control the town of Dove Valley and anything still inside the town. Here's all the coins we took from the town." Harry said with a smirk handing over the magically expanded bag full of coins. "Wait." Harry said summoning 27 gold $50 coins out of the bag. "I love these things." Harry said tossing the coins into the bank bag.

"Great." Walter said sarcastically looking at the big sack of mostly $1 coins and change.

"On a serious note I want you to take a look at this gun." Harry said handing him his model 1 off his belt.

"Would you look a that! That's a nice gun. Where did you get it?" Walter asked.

"I made it. It's the B&S model 1 in .38 extra long. That's 9 shots of hard hitting magical smokeless .38 XL and one magical 20 gauge buck and ball shotgun shell. The gun is double action with a nice 5 pound trigger pull in double action and a 3 pound trigger in single action. It's enchanted to never break, shoot straight, and eject the spent shells when you break it open. Gold filled engravings and those are dragon claw handles. You like it?" Harry asked.

"I do. This gun is great." Walter said.

"I'm giving you and your men one of those guns each, for free along with a king snake vest like the ones we wear. This vest will stop any normal bullet or blade and most enchanted ones, it also stops spells. Each man will get a gun, six speed loaders, a loading tray, gun belt, and vest." Harry said.

"No shit?" Walter asked still looking at the gun in his hand.

"No shit. We plan on having the guns ready to hand out in a few weeks." Harry said.

"And you're just giving these to us?" Walter asked.

"We are, it's a way to better equip the Marshals in big cities like this one and a way to get the guns out there for the public to see them. We plan on selling that gun you're holding in your hand for about $150. We can also outfit any 44-40 winchester rifles you have to take the .38XL ammo we make. The bullets will go for $2.50 for a box of 50. But for law officers we'll be selling boxes of 50 rounds for $1 which is just about cost. We can also expand the magazine tubes on the winchester rifles to hold 140 rounds. Never run out of ammo in a gunfight again. We'd love to have you and a few of your men stop by Eureka to test out the guns in a week or two." Harry said.

"I would love to test this gun out." Walter said reluctantly handing the gun back to Harry.

"We also have two other guns we made. The B&S Model 2, and the Model 3." Harry said handing Walter the model 2 from his shoulder rig and the model 3 from his coat pocket.

"Where's the loading gate?" Walter asked looking at the gun.

"You pull this little nub over and the cylinder swings out." Harry said showing him how it worked.

"Wow. now that's new." Walter said looking at the model 2.

"Both guns take the .38XL but of course you could load them with .38 long colt or .38 short if you wanted to. 8 shots in the model 2 and 6 in the model 3. We're going to offer the model 2s with 2 different barrel lengths, 6 inches and 3 inches. The model 3s only come in the 2 inch barrel for pocket carry. And as always Marshals get a discount." Harry said.

"How much would one of these little model 3s with the engraving and nice wood handles cost?" Walter asked slipping the small gun into his jacket pocket to test the fit.

"We're starting the base model 3s with no engravings and plane wood handles at $65, the six speed loaders and loading tray kit is going to cost $20 dollars more. But like I said for Marshal's you get the gun at half price. So for a gun and kit your looking at $85. If you want something more fancy the price goes up from there. The same with the model 2s. They are going to start at $75. That gun you're holding with the engraving and the finger groove wood handles would go for about $105. Or $52.50 for you." Harry said taking his two guns back.

"I might buy one of each. Maybe get a holster set up like you got with the cross draw." Walter said.

"Give us a week or two to get some guns made and then we'll talk. For now here. Take my model 3 and a few speed loaders." Harry said handing the gun back to walter along with six speed loaders from his coat.

"How much?" Walter asked pulling a leather money bag out of his pocket.

"On the house. Have fun and don't shoot yourself." Harry said as he stood up.

"Thank you Harry!" Walter said looking at the fancy model 3.

"Thank's for doing the leg work on all these bounties for me. If any of those criminals have bounties we'll split it with you and your men. You guys have the shit job of sorting through all of this." Harry said.

"That's very generous of you Harry. It will light a fire under my boys keysters." Walter said.

Harry portkeyed back to Eureka by noon and found his family sorting through all the shit they got in the last two days.

"Harry we have to do something about the guns. We're running out of space to store them. And the ammo to. What are we going to do with all this black powder ammo? We have so much .44-40, .45lc, and .45 S&W. We also have 150 crates of .45-70." Hermione said.

"I can turn all that bulk ammo into .38XL shell casings and bullet heads. Smith uses the black powder to make his smokeless gunpowder and if we can't sell all the guns we'll start melting them down to steel ingots and wood grips for the B&S guns. In fact I've still got some gas in the tank I can take care of the ammo, swords, and any gun that's totally junk right now. I can also make the first order of 150 Model 1s for the marshal's today but then I'm out for the count." Harry said.

"We'll have Smith sort through all the guns and dump a pile of guns in your study. For now why don't you make lunch?" Hermione said.

"And I can make the 50 Model 2s with the 6 inch weighted barrels for the sheriff's. I think we should start making a few hundred model 1,2, and 3. Just with the regular engravings. We can put the guns together and add the grips later as people buy the guns. We also have to go back and number the guns." Neville said.

"You think you have the spell down well enough to add gold engravings?" Harry asked.

"No, but Smith hand engraved his Model 2 with a 6 inch barrel and I like the look of his work and the Model 3 has the colt factory engravings so I just have to copy your work I'll leave the grips up to you." Neville said.

"Good thinking. But I must say you are coming along with the spell." Harry said patting his brother on the back as he walked out of the room to start on lunch which was steak chili with cornbread.

After lunch Harry and Neville retired to Harry's study where the couch was shrank and the floor space was taken up with crates of ammo, piles of swords and old junk guns, and bars of gold, silver, and lead. Harry started off by turning the 80 crates of .45lc, 56 crates of .44-40, 36 crates of .44 S&W ammo, and the huge pile of loose ammo they had on hand into thirty 50 pound kegs of black powder, 480 lead bars, 410 brass bars and 6 bigger kegs full of 458,000 primers. He turned 125 brass bars and most of the primers into 312,500 .38XL shell casings with primers in six big 160 liter kegs marked .38XL. He turned 200 lead bars and 25 brass bars into 312,500 brass jacketed 150 grain bullet heads and put them in four big keg marked .38XL.

Harry waved his wand at the 150 crates of .45-70 and split up the shell casings into 6 big kegs marked .45-70 put the black powder into thirty 50 pound kegs, and he turned the lead bullet heads into 388 lead 25 pound bars. The last thing he did was turn 374 lead bars and 12 brass bars into 250,000 brass jacketed 300 grain bullet heads he put in 5 big kegs marked .45-70.

Next he turned the 338 revolvers and the big pile of junk swords into 156 steel bars and 375 thick wood handle scales.

"Fuck Harry, you really have that spell down." Neville said.

"Oh all that was easy. It's the copying the parts that's hard. That's a lot of little parts and you have to cast the spell a bunch of time. It's not how much work you do with the spell it's how many times you cast it. All that work I did with the ammo was only four spells. To make a model 1 takes 57 spells. It doesn't matter if I'm making 1 copy or 1,000 copies. It's almost the same amount of magic it just takes more concentration." Harry said flexing his neck and jaw.

"I didn't know that. When did you figure it out?" Neville asked.

"Just now. I mean I've been thinking about it for a while but all that ammo I just made confirmed it for me. It took almost the same amount of power to make 312,500 .38XL shells as it did to make 2,500." Harry said.

"Well in that case make 500 copies of the Model one with gold engravings. Or make 500 frames, barrels, and cylinders with gold engravings and 500 frames, barrels, and cylinders with regular engravings and copy the internal parts in batches of 1,000." Neville said.

"You know, that's not a bad idea. For the cost of 65 spells we could have 1,000 guns. It's going to take a shit load of steel. We're going to need to get more from storage if I'm going to do this. It takes three 25 pound bars to make 25 model 1s. That's what, 120 steel bars?" Harry said in a questioning manner.

"Yes?" Neville said his voice trailing up as he said it.

"You know, when we were training to be the best killers in the world we took two different paths. I went with stealth, you went with power. Nether one of us put any time into learning book smarts. One day that's going to catch up to us." Harry said.

"It wasn't our jobs. It was my wife's job to be the brains. Our job is to follow orders and kill. Her job is to tell us who to kill and give us things to help us not die." Neville said with a shrug. Harry smiled. He was not that smart but he knew he was smarter then Neville. But he loved the way his brother made peace with his dumbness. He married a woman three times smarter than he was and she did the thinking for him.

"I think I'm right but we better grab 300 bars just to be safe. I'll make 1,500 internal parts, 250 plane janes, 750 engraved, and 500 gold filled engraved. We'll deal with grips later. As it is, it's going to take a while to put all these guns together." Harry said walking out of the room with Neville to get more steel.

"We better grab 450 bars, I have to make the Model 2s remember." Neville said.

"Good thinking. Lets just take this whole trunk." Harry said grabbing a trunk full of 1,000 shrunken 25 pound steel bars.

"Gold too." Neville said grabbing 10 shrunken gold bars.

For the next hour the two brothers sat in the silent study making gun parts by the crate load. By three they had 1,500 model 1s and 2,000 model 2s, 1,500 6 inch guns, and 500 3 inch guns. All of the model 2s were engraved and 500 of the 6 inch Model 2s had gold inlay. The group and Smith sat around the dinner table for a few hours putting guns together. With five of them working they were really moving, especially the boys. With Smith's gun smithing skills and Harry and Neville knowing where each part went by heart thanks to the copying process they were able to build 15 Model 2s an hour each. But the girls were no slouches. They stuck with the model 1s and they averaged 10 guns an hour each.

Harry called it quits at six to start dinner. That night they were having red wine marinated dragon pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions again. It was everyone's favorite and when they did finely run out of dragon meat Harry was sure Abby, Hermione, and Alice would make the boys track down another dragon just for the pot roast. Harry got the roast in the oven and came back out to keep working. By the time dinner was served at half past seven they had 200 model 2s and 100 model 1s in crates of 50. None of the guns had grips but as soon as they started handing them out they would add grips. They had dinner and after the meal Harry and Neville helped Smith get all the barrels of black powder, shell casings, and bullet heads back to his shop.

"Oh, before I forget, when is the next time you're heading to Salt Lake city?" Smith asked.

"I think I'm going tomorrow, we have to get the mail. Why?" Harry asked.

"Would you mind taking me with you and letting me borrow your broom and a portkey?" Smith asked.

"An odd request, what's going on?" Harry asked.

"Now that this company is looking like a good solid reality I wanted to bring my sister in law and her three boys to Eureka. My nephews are in their late teens and they are breaking their backs farming out in the open. They live in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It's a small city but their maine export is food. They farm the land around the town and my nephews are out there planting and picking crops. One day a pack of fucking spiders or wolves are going to attack then and they're going to end up fucking dead. That's how my brother died. A big ass spider got him eight years ago. As it is they're just getting by. I've offered them a chance to come live with me a few times but running a small gun shop in a small town means I wasn't really raking the cash in either. And as dangerous as farming is it's a lot safer than mining. But now that I have some cash I want to bring them over. I figured I could portkey to the city with you and fly out to Idaho Falls and convince them in person. It's been a few years since I've seen them. I figured I can show them a bag of gold coins and get them to come over. I can put them up in the inn for a few days and then buy the house by the farm that's for sale. It's only $1,200 and I have that. I have way more than that thanks to you and your family. I can have the boys help me in the shop. They can reload all that .38XL and .45-70 ammo." Smith said.

"How far is Idaho Falls from Salt Lake?" Harry asked.

"About 200 miles north. But on your broom that's like an hour." Smith said.

"Have you ever flown that fast?" Harry asked.

"No, but how hard can it be? It's just three times faster than my cleansweep." Smith said with a smirk.

"Right. You see those are famous last words if I ever heard any. How about this. I'll head to the city at ten like I normally do, get the mail and do anything I have to in the city and then you port over with the crew and the nightwolf and we'll fly to Idaho Falls and go get your family. It's not like they can say no if you show up in a 150 foot long war bird right?" Harry asked.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea." Smith said. "Would you really let me borrow your ship for this?" Smith asked.

"I offered didn't I? Now get some sleep, I'll go tell my crew what's going on. You said there were houses for sale?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, there are like five on the main road in the back of town close to the farm. They're a bit run down and small but fixable. With some cleaning charms, repair charms, and some new furniture they would make a great home." Smith said.

"I'll tell you what, I'll take a look at them and maybe I'll buy all of them and fix them up. I won't live in there, I'm not leaving my cube but they can house my crew and B&S workers for free. You said you wanna hire the boys. I'm willing to pay them $5 a day to act as your shop assistants. I'll even cover the cost of moving them here." Harry said.

"Harry, thank you." Smith said looking emotional as he pulled him into a hug.

"It's the least I can do. We're business partners and friends. I'll call Abby and she can round up the crew and you when I'm done in the city." Harry said.

Harry headed off to Sam's place and talked to the twins and William about making the flight and the houses.

"You know Harry, we can live on the ship right?" Tommy said.

"I know, but I want to make Eureka a home base for the ship. A place where you guys can call home. I'm sure there will be a time when we'll have to live on the ship. But for now let's settle down a bit." Harry said.

Harry made a trip to the back of the town and looked at the houses. They were, for the most part run down small one family houses with two or three bedrooms. They needed work but they would be nice. Harry told Abby about what they were doing tomorrow before sitting in his study and working on guns for another two hours before Abby called him to bed.

The next morning Harry made the trip to Salt Lake. He got the mail, dropped off the portkey anchor for Denver, and talked to Chuck about outfitting his men with the Model 1s and converting their rifles. He gave him a nice Model 3 with engravings and finger grooved wood grips and 6 speed loaders like he gave Walter the day before. From there he flew outside the city and called Abby. She portkeyed over with the ship, the twins, Will and his oldest son Steven, and Smith who was dressed in a new black suit, top hat, boots, King Snake vest, and a fur lined dragon hide long coat.

"Dressed in your Sunday best Smith?" Harry asked with a smirk as he expanded the ship.

"Trying to show I have the means to support my sister in law and my nephews. Is it too much?" Smith asked taking off the top hat.

"Harry leave Smith alone. I helped him pick out this look. You look good Smith. Don't listen to Harry. He's a dick." Abby said adjusting Smith's silk tie.

"Thank's Abby." Smith said.

"I'm just fucking with you. You look good. Like old money good. But you're missing something." Harry said pulling a black double gun belt out with two gold engraved model 1's. The guns had dragon claw grips with gold B&S logs. "There, now you're representing the company right." Harry said patting him on the back.

"Thank's Harry." Smith said looking touched.

"Family sticks together." Harry said with a smirk as he sent them on their way before popping over to Denver.

"Harry! Good to see you on this fine morning." Walter said with a big smile.

"Why the hell are you so chipper?" Harry asked.

"We processed about a fourth of the prisoners you brought in yesterday and so far the bounty total is up to $62,000 and we get half of that. If the count keeps going we're looking at about $230,000. Half of that is $115,000 split between my men evenly it's about $2,300 in free money. That's almost what we make in a year. On top of that the bag you gave me yesterday had $9,000 that's $180 a man for free. As an added bonus I told them about the guns and they all got a look at my Model 3. I got to shoot it yesterday by the way. It's great! My boys are happy, I'm happy." Walter said sitting back in his chair with a big grin.

"Wow, you're this happy for $2,300. I'll tell you what, you can keep three quarters of the bounties from Dove Valley. That's… like $173,000 or like $3,400 a man I think." Harry said.

"Really? That's very generous of you Harry!" Walter said.

"It's nothing. Besides if you and your boys have extra cash then you have money to buy my guns." Harry said laughing.

"I know you have at least a few customers. My boys really like the Model 3." Walter said taking out the gun and looking at it.

"Great. We just got started on production of the Model 1's for your men yesterday." Harry said.

"Oh, before I forget. This is yours." Walter said handing him a big bank bag. "$26,000 for Captain Jack and his crew and Crazy Jack and his six men. 520 Gold $50 coins." He said.

"Thank you. I'm going to have a few test days for Marshal's soon. Maybe as soon as the end of the week. We'll do a few days so you can send half you men at a time to not leave your office empty. We'll have targets set up and a few test guns for your men to try out. I think by Monday we should be able to do a vest fitting for your men and hand out guns." Harry said.

"I'm looking forward to it." Walter said as Harry stood up.

"I'll stop by and give you the details." Harry said.

Harry portkeyed to the ship and checked in with the twins.

"How far out are we boys?" Harry asked.

"We're close, we're about fifteen minutes out." Tommy said.

"Good job, call me when we get close. I'll head out and greet the town Marshal. Don't uncloak and land until I call you." Harry said.

"Yes Captain." They both said.

Harry found Abby and Smith looking through the crates in the cargo bay. It looked like they were making new piles.

"Whatcha doin?" Harry asked.

"Separating the junk from the good stuff. Captain Jack had some good taste. He has silk cloth and valuable things like this crate is full of small jade and ivory statues. But mixed in between crates like this are crates like that. That's a big crate of surplus union army boots. It's leather and that's about all it's good for. We found a crate full of looted jewelry. We also found a crate full of table flatware. Again it's good to melt down for the silver and steel but it's a huge crate of junk. I have a feeling that for every crate of gold and silver we find there is a crate of just junk it's worked out so far. Also I found a second safe and it's heavy. We have to crack these safes we have three of them now and we don't know what's in them." Abby said.

"Well good luck with that, I'm headed down to talk to the marshal before we uncloak the ship and land." Harry said walking over to the door and hitting the button to lower the ramp. The cold wind came rushing into the cargo bay. Harry waited until the door was down before hitting the button again to close it and flying out as the door closed.

Harry spotted the town a few miles away. The town was about three square miles in size and shaped like a circle with a big stone wall. It was built around the river with the river flowing through the center of town. Around the small city was miles of fenced off farm land with 12 watchtowers. Most of the fields were covered in a light dusting of snow and the watch towers were unmanned. From the size of the city and the number of houses, Harry figured there were about half as many people in this city then Salt Lake. Probable 250,000-300,000 give or take. Harry approached the front gate watch tower being manned by a sheriff's deputy in a heavy coat.

"Hello. I'm Marshal Harry Steel from Eureka Nevada." Harry said pulling back his coat to show off his star by way of greeting as he hovered close to the tower outside the gate.

"Good morning Marshal, what can I do for you?" The man asked.

"I came by to introduce myself to your town Marshal and ask permission to land my ship nearby. It's the polite thing to do. Also I think you have wolves out by your southern fence." Harry said waving behind him.

"Did you see them?" The deputy asked looking more alert.

"No but I can feel them. They must be hiding in the tall brush." Harry said facing the south fence.

"You can feel them?" He asked.

"Yes, I have a passive magical scan going. I do it so often it's second nature to me. I can sense the wolves. It's a big pack. 9, no 10 of them. Big." Harry said.

"Shit I have to call the marshal and round up the hunting party!" The deputy said.

"No need, I'll take care of it, but do call the marshal if you can and tell him I'll be round to see him in a bit." Harry said pulling his winchester from his bag and flying away.

It took a few minutes to find the pack and just a minute to take them out. Harry summoned the big wolves and floated them to the gate. When he got there an older man with a push broom mustache and cold grey eyes was standing by the front gate with a rifle in hand. He was dressed in black with a long leather duster and wide brimmed hat. He had his silver star on his coat and a cheek full of chewing tobacco.

"I found your problem." Harry said with a grin as he landed.

"That you did son. The deputy tells me you're a Marshal?" The old man asked in a deep but clear voice.

"I am, Deputy Marshal Harry Steel out of Eureka Nevada. I'm here escorting a friend and I thought it would be polite of me to call ahead and ask permission to lank my airship." Harry said walking closer and shaking the old man's hand. The old man had a tight grip and even though he was old and thin his was not frail.

"Well it's good to meet you Marshal Steel. I'm Head Marshal David Ross." The man said.

"Marshal would you like these kills? Dire wolf don't look like much but the fur makes a good coat lining and the meat make for a good stew." Harry asked.

"No son, you can keep those. Also you can land your ship out here in the field if you like. We don't have an airship dock." Ross said scanning the skies for the ship.

"Thank you kindly. I'll tell my men to land." Harry said turning the huge wolves into coins and putting them in his pocket before pulling out his phone. "Abby tell the boys to land right here in the field by the front gate but not blocking it." Harry said.

"Right Harry." She said back before the ship dropped cloaking scaring the marshal. The nightwolf dropped in low and landed off to the side of the front door and opened the right side door. Abby, Smith, the twins, William, and his son Steven walked off the ship before the doors closed

"YOu have a warship?" Ross asked.

"I do, I just got her. Took her off a band of pirates. Marshal I'd like you to meet my wife and deputy marshal Abby Steel." Harry said as Abby walked over with the group.

"Good to meet Ma'am." Ross said taking her hand.

"You as well Marshal. You have a lovely city here. Lots of farm land. We live in a rocky desert." Abby said.

"Farming is our main export." Ross said.

"Excuse me Marshal, would you happen to know where I can find the Hoopers? Doris and her three boys?" Smith asked.

"They live above the Dodson's general store on main street about three blocks down. They in some kind of trouble?" Ross asked.

"Not at all, she's my sister in law. I'm here for a visit and to offer the boys jobs in my shop. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be off." Smith said tipping his hat and walking through the open front gate.

"Harry we were wondering if we can get our pay so we can do a bit of shopping in town?" Bobby asked but his brother and Steven both nodded.

"Sure boys, you want it all now or just some spending money?" Harry asked pulling out his money bag.

"Some spending cash for now." Tommy said.

"Okay, here is $200 a piece. Don't spend it all in one place and we're not going to be here all day we're just stopping by to pick up Smith's family then we're going to portkey home." Harry said handing each of them 8 $25 coins each.

"We just want to look around a bit." Tommy said.

"You all have your guns right?" Harry asked and they all pulled back their long leather coats to show off the gun belts with Model 2s.

"You're boys won't be needing those. We have a pretty safe city." Ross said walking inside the city with Harry and Abby.

"I have no doubt but as you well know Marshal anything can happen out here in the wild west. Speaking of guns, how many marshal's do you have under your command?" Harry asked.

"I have 34 deputies. Why?" Ross asked.

"My brother and I have a firearms company we're trying to get off the ground and one of the ways we're promoting our guns is by giving local marshals free guns." Harry said.

"You don't say?" Ross said looking interested and Harry smirked.

Harry and Abby followed Ross back to his office giving him the sales pitch and showing off the model 1 Harry had on his belt. Ross like everyone they showed the gun to was impressed. And Harry made a set of portkeys to and from Eureka for Marshal Ross as well as a set for Salt Lake and Denver. After the meeting they walked around the city for a bit before spotting Smith walking down the street to the front gate with a pretty but worn looking woman and three older boys that shared Smith's tall thin frame but had their mother's light brown hair.

"Hey Smith." Harry called out as they approached the group.

"Harry! I want you to meet Doris Hooper and her boys Eddy, Fredy, and Donny. I was just going to show Doris and her boys your airship." Smith said.

"It's good to meet you all. I'm Harry Steel and this is my wife Abby." Harry said shaking their hands.

"It's good to meet you. Is it true you're going to pay my boys $5 a day to work for you?" Doris asked as they continued to walk.

"It is. We have so much work to do getting our firearms company off the ground and your boys would help lighten the load. We have ammo to reload, guns to build, and later on we're going to need salesmen. We are also providing housing for our employees and as soon as I get the houses up and running we're going to have our chef cooking for our group. The houses are a bit of a mess at the moment but it's nothing a few spells can't fix. We will also be covering the cost of your move as well and the boys will get a $100 contract bonus. And the work is not just for them we can find you a job to fit your skills as well Ma'am, if you would like?" Harry said.

"That's most generous of you." Doris said looking shocked.

"It was all Smith's idea. He's the one to suggest his nephews for the jobs and he was the one to give me the idea of buy houses for our workers." Harry said as they walked out of the front gate and the saw the war ship.

"My god." Doris said.

"Yes she is something isn't she? I'd give you the grand tour but she's full of junk at the moment. We're still cleaning her out." Harry said.

"You know Harry, the ship might be a good place to do production? Think about it. We can house our workers in the crew bunks and we can set up production in the cargo bay. They can take meals in the mess hall and take time off in the crew lounge. Then we don't have to buy houses. We can also go from town to town selling guns right out of the ship. A war ship for war guns." Smith said.

"It's a thought but I want the houses. We can always set up a small shack with an expansion charm and set up shop in there. Let's save the ship for in case we need her. If production gets bigger then a few people and we don't use the nightwolf for anything in the next few months we'll do that, but as it is it's kind of a waist of a perfectly good war ship." Harry said.

It didn't take much time to convince Doris and her boys to leaving Idaho Falls. It took even less time to pack, they had very little in the way of things. In fact the bulk of their furniture was provided with the apartment and was staying. They each had a few changes of work clothes, two nicers outfits, and a few small knick knacks. All of it fit into an expanded trunk. Harry found his crew. The twins were in the bar and WIlliam and his boy were in the hardware store buying a bag of bolts and nuts. They shrank the ship and portkeyed back to Eureka.

Harry stopped off in the bank and with $5,750 he was the 'proud' owner of five junky houses at the end of main street close to the farm. He went into the biggest house which had three small bedrooms and hit the house with some overpowered repair spells and cleaning charms taking the house back to almost new. Next he went through and hit each room with an expansion charm. He turned the three 8x10 bedrooms into 40x50 foot rooms. He pulled out the trunk full of shrunken and stripped pine trees and using the goblin spell he made walls and doors. He turned each bedroom into a four bedroom two bathroom apartment with a living room/kitchen area. He expanded the big 10x15 foot living room to 50x75 foot room and separated the room into six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a big dining room, and a living room. He expanded the kitchen a bit as well to give his three cooks some space. He portkeyed to Salt lake and bought eleven magical toilets, sinks, and bathtubs with showerheads. He also bought a big walk in chiller and a big eight burner magical range with three ovens. By four the house was ready and Harry showed it off to his crew and Doris and her boys. Harry helped them all move in and that night they were treated to dinner of pan seared lamb chops on a bed of mashed potatoes and asparagus with a horseradish dressing served with fresh buttery rolls and a nice red wine cooked by Jon Philip and his boys.

"The meal was great guys, thank you." Harry said sitting back in his seat at the head of the table, a spot he was pushed into when they walked into the room.

"This was nothing! A test of the range and ovens. In two days we make a Thanksgiving feast! I have the turkeys brining for a week! It will be quite a waste now that I think about it. We have ten big birds waiting to cook." Jon Philip said in a thick French accent.

"Can you make all of them and sides for a whole town?" Harry asked.

"Oui! How many people were you planning?" He asked.

"I'm not sure I would have to do a head count but I know there are folks in town that can't cook for themselves. If you have the birds all ready to go why not make them and invite those that can't cook or people without a family to share the meal to our table. Well not this table but somewhere. Ten turkeys will feed how many people?" Harry asked.

"8-9 people a bird. Call it 85 people. I always over make. If we ran out of meat… the captain and his crew were not nice. We made a lot of stews and soups from the left overs."Jon Philip said looking haunted. All of the crew did.

"Well then lucky for us we'll have enough for a good sized group of people. We'll make a few ducks and chickens too. We'll make enough to feed a 150 people. We'll set up a big table and invite folks." Harry said.

"We can use the cargo bay if we clear it out of most of the junk. We can leave the food in the front." Abby said.

"Yes, it will be easier to cook on the ship as well. We'll set up on the farm by the gate. Invite Kate and her family so she doesn't have to cook. Can you boys handle that number? I can help. I normally cook for the family." Harry said.

"We can handle it, but an extra set of hands is welcome of course." Jon Philip said.

"Good we'll spend tomorrow getting furniture for the house and cleaning out the ship. For tonight there are transfigured beds in the rooms. In the morning we'll make a trip to Salt Lake and do a furniture shopping trip. You will all be given $150 to furnish your rooms. Also I'll have the money I owe you in the morning." Harry said.

"Thank you Captain." The twins and the engineers said.

"You know you don't have to call me that. Harry is good." Harry said. The twins shared a smirk.

"Yes Boss." They said.

"I'm going to regret keeping you two on." Harry said with a smile.

The next morning Harry escorted the group to Salt Lake at nine. By noon they were done setting up the house. Harry joined Abby, Hermione, and Neville clearing out the ship. In the end they had a lot of junk and a lot of good stuff. They now had a expanded trunk full of bolts of cloth of all kinds. They also had jade, ivory, bronze, and crystal statues, works of art, bone china, silverware, crystal stemware and crates full of jewelry. They also found three more small safes and four lockboxes with magical locks in the crates. They found shipments of leather, crates of books, and stuffed animals ranging from lions and tigers to a hippogriff, and a King Snake head. Luxury items like tins of tea, tins of tobacco, and 'pharmaceutical' drugs like heroin, cocaine, and opium. They also found magical items like potion ingredients, cauldrons, scrying crystals, and gate stones which were old outdated paired portkeys.

Not all of it was good, in fact more than half of it was junk. They found crates of boots, army uniforms, clothes, wood, wagon wheels, crappy furniture, rusty tools, crates of chains and ropes, Garden sculptures, boxes with rusty gears and cogs. It was a shit show. More than half the junk they found was shit that had to be melted down for steel, brass, silver, leather, or wood. The other half was literal junk they just left in a pile by the gate and had folks take what they wanted. The good news was they cleared out almost the entire cargo bay by night fall and Harry turned all the junk into of usable raw materials. They ended up with more than 4,500 bars of steel, 2,200 bars of brass, and 570 bars of silver.

They put the rest of the loot in trunks and they would sell it off later. That night they cracked open all the safes and lockboxes they collected over the last few days. For the most part they were full of money and gold or silver bars. Some had jewelry. Others had cut and uncut loose gems. The safe from the ship had some nice gold engraved guns. All together they made $284,000 cash, coin, and gold. The gems would be added to the jewelry and they would either sell it to shops in bigger cities or they would melt it down.

Thanksgiving day went off without a hitch and with Harry, Alice, and Kate helping the cooks they made huge serving dishes full of food. After the meal Harry set up a cowboys vs indians competition on the farm with Kate's permission. It was a three gun match for the cowboys, and archery, tomahawk, and knife throwing contest. Harry awarded the winner of the individual contests with $150 and the overall winner with $250 and a nice gold engraved shotgun they found on the ship. As everyone was headed home with plates of leftovers the sun set and it began to snow signaling the end of the Thanksgiving holiday and the start of the Christmas season.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: my group started playing again so i had to go back to this story. But after this story arc they want to change things up. We're working it out now but i think we'll follow a secondary team for a few chapters or for a few intermissions to go on missions so they can play test a few new characters. If it eats up too much i'll cut bait and drop the story for a while. For those of you that keep PM'ing me about Investigator Harry Steel. Chapter 59 went up on monday but it was pointed out to me that my author's note was in the chapter 58 slot so i deleted that note and renamed the new chapter 58 like it was supposed to be. The new chapter is still up and titled chapter 58. the next one should be up either next week or the week after that.

Two days after Thanksgiving Harry set up the handgun course on the farm and invited half the Marshals from Salt Lake, Denver, and Idaho Falls over. They had 85 men show up. Harry had shooting stations set up, tables with B&S guns for them to look at. They had six long tables set up, buckets of cold beer, a big grill going with king snake fillet sandwiches and burgers, and big baskets of fries at every table. Harry cast a warming charm over the area and there were three pot belly stoves set up around the tables to keep the area warm. By the end of the day they had the marshal's vest sizes and over a hundred orders for Model 2's and 3's. On top of that both Walter and Chuck each ordered 51 plane jane Model 3's, one for every marshal under their command. They repeated the process the next day for the other half as well as the local sheriffs from Eureka, Hamilton, and Ely.

When the party ended at three they got to work on the guns. Harry made 175 handles for Model 1's out of dragon teeth with the silver marshal's star and 'US Marshal' engraved under it, and 58 Model 2 handles out of dragon claws with a silver sheriff's star and the name of the town engraved under it. As he did that Neville made crate loads of speed loaders and trays for all three models while Abby made the king snake vests and black leather gun belts. Hermione used the goblin spell to turn three trees and a bolt of green wool into 250 model 1 gun cases. As they were doing this Smith was finishing up the engravings for the shell ejection on the last few Model 1s for the order.

After Harry made the sets of handles he helped Abby make vest and gun belts. When Hermione, and Neville were done making batches of parts and cases they helped Smith's nephews add handles to the guns, and put them in the case along with 2 loaded speed loaders, a brass cleaning rod, a cleaning brush, 25 .38XL rounds and ten buck and ball brass shotgun shells in the two small ammo holders. When they had enough for an order. They packed up a vest, a gun case, the gun belt, a box with 4 extra speed loaders and the loading tray, two 50 round boxes of .38XL, and a box of 25 brass 20 gauge buck and ball shotgun shells. They folding the paper bag over, tied it with twine and wrote the name of a marshal and the town he worked in on the package before setting it in a trunk.

When they had all the custom Model 1 orders filled they started on the Model 3 orders. Harry made 110 sets of finger grooved Model 3 handles and they spent time attaching them to the Model 3s they made while Neville turned two deer hides and three coyote furs into 110 small fur lined leather gun sleeves for the guns. Like before they added handles, inspected the guns, and slipped them into their little sleeves. Once they had enough for an order they put a box of .38 Xl ammo into a smaller paper bag with a small box with 6 speed loaders and the loading try, the sleeve with the gun and a small brass cleaning brush. Again they rolled up the loose end of the bag and tied it up with string.

The last thing they did was turn two deer hides and three more coyote furs into 75 bigger sleeves and they packed up the local sheriff's Model 2's the same way as the Model 3's. They finished the last gun by eight. They headed off to the crew house and Jon Philip had a hearty beef stew waiting for them. They ate it with fresh rolls and beer. They ate until they felt food drunk and headed back to the cube to pass out.

They next day they worked on personal orders. It really wasn't much different from the night before but these guns got wool lined wood cases like the Model 1's. They had a lot of orders for Model 2's with 6 inch weighted barrels. For the most part the orders were for plane guns or just engravings. Some sprung for the gold filled engravings, and leather shoulder rigs. Almost all of them wanted the finger grooved wood handles, but some wanted ivory, or dragon tooth. Harry was all too happy to oblige them. For him it was a bit of magic and concentration for them it was $25- $50. It's not like they needed the money now but B&S was about their future. Harry's goal was to arm the American military like Colt did for close to 300 years. Harry also wanted the company to do well to get them off the ground so the expansion of the company paid for itself.

By the time they were done filling the orders the stock of pre-made guns took a hit. They both spent the rest of their energy making crates of Model 1s, 2s, and 3s for Smith and his boys to put together. That was their life now. If they weren't reloading buckets of ammo they were building guns. Smith spent his time engraving runes on guns and looking over the fit and finish of the guns his boys were making.

Tuesday the whole group popped over to Salt Lake city to hand out the guns. The Salt Lake City Tribune was tipped off by Chuck and they were on hand to interview Harry and Neville as well as take pictures of the guns and vests they were handing out. Harry was as charming as ever and he made sure to add that if you wanted a B&S gun the only place to buy one at the moment was Smith's gun shop in Eureka Nevada by mail order, but they were going to open a store in the city soon. As they talked to the press and handed out the custom Marshal guns the girls handled the personal gun orders. Between the order for the 51 Model 3's and the 36 personal orders they made $4,285 and they were selling guns at a half price discount!

They headed to Denver next and they were met by the same thing, a reporter from the Denver post. They split up again with the boys acting as the face of the company as the girls settled up the 57 orders they got from Denver Marshals. Whereas the Salt lake city marshal's tended to go with plane guns with wood grips, Harry's words about having extra cash burning a hole in the Denver marshal's pockets proved right. They made $7,735 on mostly gold engraved guns with dragon's tooth grips and boxes of extra ammo. They finished the rounds with Idaho Falls where they were met with more press before heading to Ely to hand out guns to the new town marshal and the sheriffs. They dropped off the guns for the Hamilton sheriffs and finally they handed out the 7 Model 2s to the sheriffs in Eureka.

They headed home for lunch and Hermione looked at her sales book. They ended up making just over $15,000 that day. Harry took $150 off the top and put it in a lockbox for Smith, the rest went into the money trunk. They would take all the small bills and coins to a bank and cash it out for gold $50 coins. The coins were good because if they held onto them and didn't spend them all they would be worth a crap ton later. They had trunks full of the gold coins. They filled small canvas bank bags with 200 coins each. When they had 25 bags or 5,000 coins in one trunk they shrank the trunk and put it in a safe. Each trunk had $250,000 they had four trunks in the safe and they were starting a new one. Any time they had a lot of loose cash or coins they traded them in. They also traded in most of the silver they had for gold coins. The price of silver would never rise high enough to catch up with the gold coins. They did the same thing with half the gold bars they had. And the mine was still producing gold and silver. They were also taking all the steel, lead, copper, and tin out of the mines for less gold and silver. They had hundreds of shrunken trunks full of 25 pound working metal bars.

Their stockpiles were huge but as soon as the business started to take off they were going to be burning through steel and brass by the ton. Harry figured out you got 25 Model 1s from 3 steel bars. 25 Model 2s from 2.5 bars of steel. And 20 Model 3s from a bar of steel. And orders were coming in. what they failed to take into account was the enchanted part of the guns. Muggles in the west were willing to pay a lot of money for a gun if it was enchanted. The fact that it was magically accurate and almost indestructable were major selling points. The fact that the guns were magically hand crafted by wizards was another selling point. But the new swing out cylinder was huge. Also word of mouth was helping their sales. By the end of that first week they had to open temporary pop up stores run by the girls to take orders in Salt Lake, Denver and Idaho Falls. They got 350 orders most of them for more than one gun in three days of the newspapers printing their stories.

To combat guessing how much steel they needed and to get ahead of the rush they were now expecting, Harry and Neville stockpiled gun parts five days a week for two weeks straight taking themselves to exhaustion each night. Things got even better when Harry figured out he could engrave the runes as he cast the parts the second day he was making gun parts. They just had to charge the runes on the guns once they were put together which Hermione figured out he could do by the box load.

This meant Harry was going to be really tapped out during the weekend too. Between making 25,000 model ones (10,000 plain, 10,000 engraved, and 5,000 gold in engraved) and 35,000 Model 3's (15,000 plain, 15,000 engraved, and 5,000 gold engraved) plus all the rune engraved parts of the Model 2's every week Tuesday through Saturday and charging the ten trunks full of guns the boys made that week Harry was tapped out until he got up after noon on Monday after crashing the night before. Neville was in just as bad a shape. He was making 25,000 Model 2's a week (10,000 plane, 10,000 engraved, and 5,000 gold engraved.) he also made a few of the bulk parts like screws and small parts for the Model 1's. He also hade crates full of speed loaders from aluminum and brass.

By mid-December they had 50,000 Model 1's, 50,000 model 2s, and 70,000 model 3s. It took all of the steel they had, just a bit over 15,000 bars of steel, or 375,000 pounds of steel. It also took the twins, WIlliam, and his four boys pitching in to help build all the guns. But they were hoping the order trends held up and they wouldn't need to make guns for a while. They would just need to make handles, cases, or sleeves as the orders came in. They also reloaded most of the brass Harry made. They started with the .38XL ammo before moving on to the .45-70 ammo when they were finished loading a bucket of bullets they packed them 50 to a box and 50 boxes to a crates. They had more than 250 crates of .38XL just waiting to go out.

In the two weeks they spent making a back log they sold 628 Model 1's, 481 Model 2's, and 929 Model 3's. They made just over $210,000. But gun making wasn't the only thing that happened in the two weeks, they still had jobs to do. But with the boys down for the count five days a week, six in Harry's case the job of town marshal fell to the girls. They patrolled every other day and they worked in the pop up stores selling guns the other days. They had a few interesting days but for the most part it was quiet. The cold temperatures and the snow stopped most things from causing a ruckus. The local town Sheriffs doing a bang up job killing anything close to their towns also helped. It was funny but if you gave boys new guns they tended to shoot more things. Who knew?

But two weeks was enough for Hermione who was missing out on a lot of research by playing lawman and sale's girl. So the girls made two hires. Marshal Copeland's daughters Beth and Susan Copland. The girls were in their early twenties (21 and 22), magically powerful but untrained, and pretty as hell with long blond hair, big blue eyes, and nice smiles. But they were raised by their daddy and older brother to be tomboys. They could out shoot half the marshal's under their daddy's command and they could handle themselves in a fist fight. They were given vests, gun belts, and model 1's. Hermione offered the sisters $15 a day and $1 commission on ever $100 they made.

They bought two small shops in Salt Lake and Denver and warded the hell out of them. They hired two guards to watch the two stores. The twins funny enough volunteered for the job when they saw the two girls. They made display cases with all the guns they sold. The girls ran their shop Monday through Thursday and each took a tent and headed to smaller cities and town nearby on Friday and Saturday. Soon they were raking in the cash. They were the queens of the upsell. They could talk a man into buying anything. By the third week in December and their first week on the job they made over $180,000 in sales, almost twice what Abby and Hermione made. That was $1,800 in commissions split between the two of them in six days. They were on pair to make more money in a month then their father and brother made in a year.

As soon as they handed off the work to their employees they got back to work on their real jobs of protecting the county. They also took time to decorate. The boys uprooted a small tree and planted it in a big clay pot they set up in the living room. They put magical lights and bulbs on the tree and started stacking gifts under the the tree or at least the girls did, the boys still had to do their shopping. By the end of the third week Harry was spending a lot of his free time keeping to himself in his study with a sign on the door reading 'do not enter, trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again'.

The other thing they started doing was eating at the boarding house with the crew. Harry still liked cooking and he did it three or four nights a week and breakfast was on him, but lunch and some of the weeks dinners were on the chef and his boys. They were also spending more time with Alice and her family who were all invited to dinner. The chef liked to cook for at least 30 people. In fact all of his pots and pans were huge. After working to feed upwards of 150 a day on a cruise ship and then cooking for a band of 45 pirates cooking for less than 12 felt wrong.

So everyone was invited to dinner. He made a big roast every night and any left overs were tomorrow's soup or stew. The dinner table was huge and anyone was invited to dinner. Whether you couldn't cook for yourself, or couldn't afford a meal, or you just didn't want to deal with it that night you could always find a seat at the table. And if the table was full then you could sit in the kitchen.

Between the supplies from the ship and the hunting Harry, Abby, and Neville did the meals were almost free. Although some people paid for their meal. It wasn't much but it was what they could pitch in. Jon Philip felt funny about taking the money so Doris set out a tip jar by the door to the dining room. Jon Philip in turn handed the money off to Harry to pay for groceries. Jon Philip was never worried about money, he just wanted to cook. find new tastes, flavors, and ways to make the odd and obscure. He loved working with random meats. Dire wolf, king snake, dragon, it was all new and fun for him. If he could he'd try to make goblin stew and troll burgers if Harry wouldn't stop him.

Doris on the other hand was a caregiver and as Jon Philip filled their bellies Doris checked up on everyone. She liked to clean up after all the men in the house and she took over the job of mother to the house faster than anyone would have expected. Within days of moving in she was cleaning, organizing, and telling the men what to do. For the most part they found it funny and went along with it. William did not find it funny. I took Harry talking to the two to get to the heart of it. Will felt like she was trying to muscle in and take over where his dead wife left off and Doris felt bad that the boys had to grow up without a mom. After the meeting the house fell in line and became a bastion of light in the town.

Eureka was a mostly secular town, there was a small church, but no one was forced to go and the pastor was more interested in not having to work to maintain his quality of life then saving the townsfolk. Doris was all too happy to fill in. She took over Harry's mission to save the two towns, Eureka and Hamilton. She checked on the elderly, she helped Hermione make potions and distribute them to the sick. She took pots of stew to people that couldn't make it out of their house and all too soon she was gaining a following. A few of the other church ladies saw how much she was doing and jumped on the bandwagon. By January Doris had a small army of ten older out of work women that helped her take care people in need.

As the month of december came to a close Christmas rolled in with a small blizzard that covered most of the town in two and a half foot of snow with huge snow drifts. Harry and Neville saw the snow coming down the night before and got up before the sun on christmas day to clear the streets and paths. They flew around on brooms in high cold winds summoning the snow off the ground into expanded barrels with heat charms that turned the snow to water. It took three hours to get all the streets and fronts of houses and shops clear in Eureka and Hamilton. They then went around and checked on folks making sure to tell them to stay inside as much as possible until the fest later. By the time they came in out of the cold at eight they were freezing, sweating, and soaked to the bone, but most of all tired. They girls stripped them out of their wet clothes and handed them warm flannel sleeping pants and heavy knitted sweaters. They sat them down on the couch in the living room and handed them cups of coffee.

"Feeling better or do you want Pepper up?" Hermione asked running scans on the two of them.

"We're fine Mia, it's just a bit of snow." Harry said.

"It's in the low teens out there and the high winds are making it worse." Abby said.

"We're good, let's open gift and watch christmas movies." Harry said.

"Now you're talking." Neville said.

"Okay, let's get started." Abby said grabbing a few gifts off the top and handing them out.

Hermione got a stack of books from everyone. She got a full length black fur coat, with a grey Russian style hat and a muff from Abby and a bunch of old spell books. A huge ruby and diamond necklace from Neville, along with an antique potion's kit full of shiny brass and wood tools and hand blown glassware, and a stack of old potions books. Harry gave her a black CZ 75b SP-01 he engraved and enchanted. The engravings were filled with gold and the grips were carved ivory with a red and gold Gryffindor house crest made of gold and ruby dust. It came with three enchanted 170 magazines in a nice wood box. He also gave her signed first printings of all of Jules Verne's works.

"I love the gun Harry, did you make this with the goblin spell?" She asked looking at her gun.

"Not really, I made the slide and frame but everything else is from a donor gun from the trunk. I did do all the enchantments on it using the skills you showed me." Harry said.

"Good job. I love it. It's not a ruby and diamond necklace but it's nice." Hermione said looking at the gun.

Neville got a brown Russian style fur hat and a Winchester 1885 high wall rifle in .50-110 from Abby along with a leather bandolier of 100 very big red brass bullets. The gun was nothing special, just meat and potatoes, and made to kill something very big.

"It's a copy of the gun Harry bought at the junk shop when he got the Model 1's. I talked to Smith and he did some testing on the gun and he was impressed with it. I bought a few of the guns in Salt Lake and did the enchantment on the guns myself. Mia helped me make the rounds. They are extremely powerful and the bullet nose is magical. The shell casings are expanded on the inside and packed full of Smith's gunpowder and the bullet nose expands once it leaves the gun like the 500 nitro rounds, but this one becomes an 6 inch long 2 inch wide 12 pound red brass spike with a steel core. The spike penetrates a foot deep into the mountain when I tested it. I made the gun for me to replace the 500 rifle for magical big game hunting. But I figured why should I be the only one to have fun. Besides the ammo was easier to make in batches of 500." She said.

"Nice, less kick and almost the same damage. I like it. But it's one shot, we're going to need to practice the reload on this bad boy." Neville said with a big grin on his face.

"Well practice with normal rounds. The ammo is a bitch to make just like the 500 nitro ammo. That first batch of 500 rounds cost almost a $1,000 and it took a week to make and enchant." Hermione said.

"God Damn!

"That's about three times cheaper and easier than the 500 Nitro rounds." Hermione said.

"No shit? Well from now on, unless it's life or death we are saving the 500 nitro rounds and we'll look for something bigger, better, and cheaper than the Nitro rifles for huge game like dragons. $3,000 for 500 rounds..." Harry muttered.

"It's closer to about $3,750. It's about $7.56 a round. Tungsten is expensive and the magical gunpowder we used was temperamental. It's why we don't have recoil charms on the gun. Too much magic around the volatile nitro rounds. It took years of testing to figure that out. It's why the rifle is a 500 nitro and not a 700 or 900 nitro rifle. Too big of a round, too much magical gunpowder, too big of a boom. You meat head operatives have no idea how much work goes into your gear." Hermione said listing off facts with a smirk.

"No shit. If we ever give you shit about things like that in the future you have the right to kick my ass. Now open my gifts Nev." Harry said nodding to the two boxes, a handgun case and a rifle case.

Harry gave him the Sig Sauer P226 X-Five. The gun was covered in bear engravings filled with gold and dark blue sapphire dust. For the grips Harry used bear femur bone and carved the House Blackwell crest into the white bone. The crest was similar to House Steel but instead of a wolf head there was a bear head he filled it in with sapphire dust and the Blackwell name in gold. The gun came with three 190 round magazines. In the second box was a Rock River Arms 458 AR-15 with an 18 inch barrel, full length key mod handguard, a magpul angle grip, a magical scope, an adjustable stock, and magpul pistol grip. Engraved on the lower was the house Blackwell crest in gold. The rifle came with five 100 round magazines.

"Fucking nice work Harry!" Neville said.

"I made a rifle for each of us. I had to strip a few other ARs to make them. I figured it's another tool in the tool box. 458 id good for taking out big things like trolls. But it's a modern gun so we can only use it when no one is around to ask questions." Harry said.

"I always wanted a 458 rifle! It's so cool and ridiculous. I also really love the Sig. I've always said we should carry the X-Five." Neville said looking at the X-Five.

"I agree. It's why I started to carry one. Now that we're not Operatives we should look at all of our gear and see if we can change out some stuff." Harry said pulling out his gun from the undercover shoulder rig. It was almost the same gun but Harry's gun had the Steel crest on it with the wolf's head instead of the bear.

Abby got books and enchanting tools from Hermione. A Winchester Rifle in .38XL with a shorter 16 inch barrel, a carved wood stock and gold engravings from Neville. He also gave her a box with tribal indian beads. Harry gave her a Wilson Combat 1911 X-Tac in stainless steel, the gun had scroll engravings but mixed in the scroll work were personal things like the state of Texas on the top of the slide. On the side of the slide was "Lone Star Lady" in a banner. All of the engravings were filled with blue sapphire and red ruby dust. The grips were ivory with a gold Texas Ranger star. It came with six 90 round mags also engraved with long horn bulls.

"I love it Harry." She said looking at the gun.

"I also got you this." Harry said handing her a flat wood box. Inside was a huge 40ct square cut emerald on a necklace made of 100 1ct square cut diamonds and platinum.

"Holy Shit!" She said looking at the huge stone.

"Yeah, the goblin charm works on stones as well. It takes a fuck load of power to do it but that was a bag of loose emeralds at one point." Harry said.

"I love it, I love you too but you know… big ass emerald." She said laughing.

Harry got an enchantment copy book full of useful enchantments, a set of very small jeweler's engraving tools, and more enchanting supplies from Hermione. He got a black Russian style fur hat and a gold pocket watch with wolf head on the front from Abby, as well as a note telling him his present was waiting back in their room with a smiley face. From his brother he got a pair of handmade Holland and Holland double barrel shotguns in a leather wrapped case.

"Handmade and there is not one spot on those guns were there is not engraving of some kind." Neville said.

"Nice. We need to go hunting for birds." Harry said.

Harry made breakfast after that. And they sat and watched White Christmas and Home Alone. Or the girls did, the boys never made it passed the first movie. They passed out holding their girls. They had an early lunch and got dressed for the day. They headed off to the ship which was parked on the farm by the gate. Jon Philip, his boys, Kate, Alice, Doris, and her friends were in the big kitchen cooking up a storm. The guys were setting up tables and chairs with white table cloths, plates, flatware, and glasses. All of it was conjured or transfigured but it would last a few days and they could just vanish it all when they were done with the meal. They were expecting somewhere between 500-750 people. So they cooked for 750 and made enough place settings for everyone. They were expecting at least 250 people from the town as well as almost all of the town of Hamilton. They had invited Marshals from all the cities and towns they knew and they were expecting Chuck Copeland and his three children to show up as well as Walter and his wife. Harry headed to the kitchen to help as soon as they got there. The rest of the group pitched in helping to set up.

People started arriving at five. They had them mingle as a enchanted string quartet played soft waltz style music. There were tables with glasses of beer and wine set up and trays of finger foods. At six when they were sure everyone was there they sat down and Harry did a head count. 734 people showed up. They started bringing up bowls and trays of food. They had roast duck, prime rib, venison, rabbit, elk, dragon, and kingsnake. Three different kinds of potatoes, corn, green beans, and carrots. They even had stuffing, and cranberry sauce.

After the meal Harry stood up and thanked them all for coming. He then opened a trunk and showed them it was full of silver medical style bracelets.

"These are emergency medical portkeys. These will save your life one day. They have two functions. One, they monitor your health. If you get very hurt, or too sick, or you get attacked by something this bracelet will put you in a magical stasis and take you to the marshal's office here in town where we have potions and access to healing. Also we can back track the portkey and go take care of anything that hurt you. But it's also an emergency portkey. If you see something bad happening. If you find yourself stuck somewhere like a mine cave in. All you have to do is take the bracelet off, twist and pull the this small silver plate apart. You will be transported to the marshal's office where you can get help." Harry said showing them how the bracelet comes apart. "I made 5,000 of these. One for each person in Eureka, Hamilton, and Ely. I will be making more of these for people in Salt Lake, Denver, and Idaho Falls. It's my goal to make these a standard thing for everyone. At a certain point we have to take back our land from the magical and wild threats. With these we can walk with a bit more confidence that we won't die just because we wandered outside the gates of our towns." Harry said and got a round of applause. "These are sterling silver plated brass and they will hold up to anything. Put them on and don't take them off. Form a line and I'll start handing them out." Harry said.

They spent the rest of the evening dancing on the ship before they escorted everyone back home. Harry walked into his room with Abby following him. He ditched his clothes and dropped into his bed.

"YOu ready for the other gift I got you?" Abby asked in a sexy tone.

"Abby, don't take this the wrong way, but right now if you started something I would pass out before we even got things going. Right now the best gift you can give me is keeping me warm as a pass the fuck out." Harry said half asleep already.

"I take no offence at all. I think cuddling up to you sounds great. Let me go wash my face and I'll be right back." She said heading off to the bathroom. By the time she came out five minutes later Harry was snoring.

They handed out the rest of the bracelets the next day and it turned out to be just in time. Minors in Hamilton blasted through to an underground cave made of rock, gold, copper, silver, and glowing blue stones where the miners were promptly attacked by four lizard men with spears. They stabbed three miners before they were able to shoot the four lizard men. At the same time the three miners were being looked at by Hermione. Harry and Neville, who were on patrol at the time, were called back. They took the tracking portkey to the mine and found the miners looking freaked out with guns in hand standing over four dead lizard men and looking at the illuminated tunnel that went deeper into the mine.

The lizards were about four foot tall and humanoid with alligator like heads and three foot long tails. Harry turned the four lizard men into coins. He picked up the spears. They were made of a gold colored metal and had glowing blue stone tips. He shrank the spears and looked at the shields on the ground. They looked like they were made of some kind of exoskeleton and held together with leather. He took them as well as a bag of blue stone and sealed up the mine shaft with a barrier spell before leading the minors out of the mine. He set up guards to watch the mine before they popped back to Eureka. They found the girls working on the three miners with Alice's help in the back room Harry made for medical emergencies like this.

"How are they doing?" Harry asked.

"Good for now. They were stabbed with something sharp, jagged, and dirty. If we weren't here they would all be dead. If the nasty wound wouldn't kill them the infection would have as it was I needed to use a bit of magic to cleanse the infection. What did this?" Hermione asked cleaning her hands to get the blood off.

"These things. I have no idea what they are." Harry said expanding the four lizard men on the floor. "They attacked with these." Harry said expanding the spears and shields.

"Those are kobolds. They came over the rift." Alice said looking at the lizard man.

"Of course it did. What else did the rift bring over?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"The rift wasn't just one rift. It was a lot of them. There was one massive hole in the grand canyon but there were hundreds of smaller rifts that popped open, spat out odd creatures and people. Creatures like that, and smart dragons that breath poisons and frost, huge birds big enough to carry away a cow in each talon. Owl bears, orcs, dwarves, elves, mind flayers, huge purple worms, beholders and hundreds of other things I hope to never come in contact with. People came over too. Some evile, some good. Most of them died in the fight to close the breach but some still remain. And when we closed the rift it left us with magic that messed with alot of things. It turned some things bigger and more aggressive. Like the kingsnakes and dire wolves. It made some magical creatures change too like werewolves. They became bigger and more aggressive. It turned some rock into oddly glowing blue, green, and red crystal that is full of magic. Without the blue stone airships like the one you have would not fly. There's also redstone that amplifies dark magic. Green stone helps speed up the healing process but it's rare." Alice said.

"Okay, then we know what we're dealing with, we need to go deal with it. Let's load up on supplies and head back down into the mine. If you don't hear from us in a few hours call us on the magical communicator." Harry said pointing to the magical glass tablet that acted as a big version of their smart phone.

"Will you four be alright? We've seen something like this before. A rift could have opened up under ground and that mine could be full of all kinds of nasty things." Alice said.

"We are going to be very heavily armed and we will be taking a cube with us so we can have a secure location to rest or retreat." Harry said leading the group back to the cube the gather supplies.

"Good luck. And just so you know. Blue stone goes for about $5 an ounce." Alice said.

"Good to know." Harry said walking into his cube.

"Okay what are we doing?" Neville asked.

"We need to load up on bulk ammo 9mm and 5.56 in the extended mags for our MP5s, M4s, and Sigs. I want each of us to walk into that mine with 5,000 loaded rounds. Full tactical vest over our dragon hide vest, and dragonhide coats. We don't need to take our revolvers. This is going to be operative wet work. Keep your large caliber guns on hand and loaded. We don't know what we're walking into but I can tell you this. That cave is big. I did a quick scan and I felt out for mile and there were a lot of those kobolds." Harry said pulling guns out of his bag.

"Okay. we'll take my cube. We don't want to move this one. This is our home and if anything we could leave my cube down there and retrieve it later if we have to fall back. My cube is empty. Just the standard two bedrooms, kitchen, living room and dining room." Neville said.

"Alright. Let's load up." Harry said.

For the next hour they spoke very few words. They kept their heads down and kept working. They filled the dining room table with guns and loaded magazines. Once they had everything they checked it all over one more time before they started loading up their empty bags and pockets. The first thing they did was pull on their tactical vest. The vest was made like a plate carrier but thinner with expanded pouches. They each had 5x 300 round MP5 mags as well as 10x 30 round MP5 mags in their bags. They had 5x 300 round M4 mags as well as 10x 30 round M4 mags in their bags. They had their new guns as well as their operative guns on them. They had three extended mags and ten stock mags for both hand guns. Also on their vests were six frag grenades and six flash bang grenades. For Harry he ended up with 1,800 rounds of 5.56, and 2,820 rounds of 9mm on his person. Less than 5,000 but more than he ever carried at once.

After they loaded up the mags in their vests they slung their MP5Ks over their shoulders and their bags around their chest and opposite shoulders. They pulled on their coats and slung their M4's over their shoulders. They checked their shotguns in their bags to make sure they were full of buck and ball shotshells. As well as their new 1885 high wall rifles with the magical ammo. Their 458 SOCOM rifles, and finally their 500 nitro guns. They added an ammo can to their bags with ten more MP5, M4, and hand gun mags. Harry took six ammo cans full of bulk NATO 9mm and 5 cans of 556 ammo and put them in a trunk along with ammo cans full of more grenades, and RPGs. He was not fucking around and his family felt it too. They put the trunk in the entry hall of Neville's cube and Neville shrunk it and put it in his pocket.

"Okay, let's do this. I'm taking point. Neville you're on my back. Abby you're next and Mia will watch all our backs. At any point we run into a totally fucked situation we fall back, drop a portkey, and get out of there. We can always come back with a team of Marshals if we have too. We will try to do this with some stealth, we have our cloaks if we need them but I hate using them if their are four of us out there. We could shoot each other on accident." Harry said holding out a portkey to the mine. They all took hold and they vanished.

They reappeared in the mine standing in front of the magical barrier Harry threw up. Harry watched as they formed up behind him and he walked through the barrier. As soon as they walked into the first tunnel they encountered three kobolds that looked like a patrol. Harry took them down with three head shots from his M4 and they kept moving down the hall Hermione shrank the three gold spears and put them in her bag and kept moving.

They came to a bigger cavern and Harry held up his hand stopping the group. He checked out the cavern and saw a campsite with a fire in the middle of the 60 foot room and eight kobold sitting around the fire. Harry held up eight fingers and pointed at himself and Neville and pointed to the left. He pointed at the girls and pointed right. They lined up two wide and rolled into the cavern and they each took out two. They checked the camp and saw mining carts full of mined blue stone. Hermione pulled out a trunk and boxed it all up. They also took their gold spears before moving on to the tunnel on the other side of the room.

They moved down the hall at a good clip using the light from the glowing blue stones to light their way. It was like the tunnel was lined with blue neon. It was enough light to see but not make out all the details. It helped that they all had night vision spells on their eyes. Once they cleared out this mine they were going to be rich as hell. The walls were lined with blue stone veins as well as gold, silver, copper, and iron. Harry was going to have fun strip mining the whole area to get all of it.

They headed down the mine shaft deeper and Harry spotted a group of six kobolds he and Neville took them down. They slowed down just long enough to take their spears and kept moving. In the next tunnel they found a patrol of four kobolds with four big white spiders on chains the size of big dogs. Harry didn't even fuck around once he saw the spiders. He dropped his M4 to full auto and sprayed the group with a thirty round burst. Neville followed his lead a second later. In three seconds there was nothing left of the group and Harry banished the viscera out of their way as he lead them further into the mine.

six hours, 119 kobolds, and 36 big white spiders later and they came to the mouth of the tunnel into a huge cavern that housed a town of kobolds. The cave had be 500 foot across and 150 foot up and shaped like a rough carved dome. There was about thirty feet between the mouth of the cave and the small wall that marked the edge of town. There had to be about fifty tent like buildings made of gold metal poles and leather and it was full of five foot tall bigger kobolds with darker skin and longer spiked tails wearing gold colored plate armor. Infact on closer inspection Harry could see the bigger kobolds treated the smaller kobolds like slaves. Harry pulled out his cloak and broom and did a recon flight over the city to see what was going on. As he flew over he got a better idea when he saw a big 20 foot wide tunnel headed up to the surface. The tunnel was being carved by a huge purple worm that was being controlled by a team of five bigger kobolds holding blue stone topped staves and dressed in tabard like tunics. It looked like the tunnel, unlike the ones they followed to get here, was not following the veins of glowing blue stone but instead it looked like they were headed up on a steep but manageable angle.

Harry didn't like the look of it. He also didn't like the look of the camp. All the the structures aside from the short two foot stone wall that looked thrown together marking the front of camp were temporary. He also noticed that there were no women in the camp. This was a war camp. All of the bigger kobolds had gold plate armor and spears or gold swords. He counted the buildings and did a scan with his magic to see how many they were looking at. He counted about 150 king sized kobolds and 95 regular kobolds. He also saw cages with big white spiders, and cages with odd looking worms the size of dogs. Harry also spotted a cave that headed deeper underground on the other side of the cavern.

He flew back to the group and they headed back down the tunnel before they opened Neville's cube. They piled in and shrank the cube once they were inside. Harry lead them to the smaller dining room table and laid it all out for them.

"I wonder where we are right now?" Neville asked.

"We were traveling north when we first came into the mine but we've been going east for the last five hours. I bet I know where they're headed, Ely." Harry said.

"You think so?" Abby asked pulling out a meal bar. She passed out a few of them.

"I bet you they are, and I bet if we keep following the other tunnel back we'll be deep under Salt Lake or Provo they are both east of here." Harry said.

"Why hit Ely? Why not hit a smaller town like Hamilton? Or a bigger town like Provo?" Neville asked.

"I don't know? Who's to say they weren't going to hit Hamilton? They were digging to the mine. It just so happened that the miners broke through first. Even then they took out three men before those four kobolds were taken down. If they would have broken through at night and attacked the town while it slept? As for why Ely, the only thing I can think of is the mine? Ely's mine is full of gold and silver but I bet it's full of blue stone too but it's also deep. I bet that tunnel is on an intercept course with their mine. And if Eureka's mine was deep under ground instead of in a mountain I bet there would be a tunnel coming for us too." Harry said.

"Food too. One of the men had a bite mark on his arm. I bet humans make for tasty treats. Especially if they are stuck down here. They can't be farming anything that requires sunlight. That leaves fungus and insects. Or each other." Abby said.

"They do treat the smaller ones like slaves, I bet they eat the weak ones like some lizards and insects." Hermione said.

"And without us here to stop them the towns out west would have been fucked. You have to remember, without us here Hamilton falls is a matter of minutes if a good sized force attacked at night. The same with Ely and Eureka. No fifty marshal could have just done what we did to get down here without half of them dieing. For us we hardly broke stride." Harry said.

"Silent guns too. The marshals would have been using black powder rounds. Between the smoke and the sounds of the gun fire this tunnel would have been crawling with kobolds and spiders." Neville agreed.

"Also, if this is what they are willing to throw at an assault on a town the size of Ely then what are their numbers like? How many of them are down here?" Harry said.

"Hundreds, maybe thousands. We need more supplies and rest after we take out this camp." Hermione said looking winded. For the boys and Abby six miles at a jog was nothing. For Hermione six miles was six miles.

"We'll set up a barrier, drop a portkey, and head back to the surface. We can have the miners in Hamilton start mining out the blue stone. We've been summoning the spent brass as we've been going so we don't have to worry about them. We'll resupply and come back tomorrow. For now let's reload our expanded mags and be ready for a good fight. I figure we got two options here. We can try to go silent for as long as we can. We'll fly up on our brooms under our cloaks, find a place to perch somewhere high up, cast obscuring charms over the area, and start taking them out one at a time until they figure out something's wrong before we go full auto and rain hot lead down on them. Or we go in hot. One or two of us on brooms fly up and start dropping frags and flash bangs on the camp. When they're all fucked up we'll attack the camp and take them out with bursts of full auto as the flyers pick off the stragglers. Either way I want to hit that huge purple worm with an rpg. I have a feeling that thing is going to be our biggest threat." Harry said opening the trunk with the ammo.

"I say we try to take as many of them as we can before they figure something is off. As soon as they do we'll lob frags into the camp and tear them a new one." Hermione said topping off her two 300 round MP5 mags.

"M4's to start. Go for headshots. Take as many as you can. The second any of us see the shit hit the fan. Toss a grenade and get the party started. If we cause a cave in, portkey out and we'll regroup." Harry said.

Ten minutes later found Harry flying around the cavern forty foot up looking for a good shelf to set up. He found a small divot in the rock face just to the left of the cave mouth and using the goblin magic he made a small balcony. He cast obscuring spells around the balcony and flew in. The small duck in was just big enough for him to lay on the floor and shoot off the edge. From this position he was about 300 foot from the center of the camp. Harry laid on the floor of his small cave and using his ACOG scope on his rifle and his mage sight he scanned the cavern for signs of his team. He spotted Hermione in a similar cave to his to his left. If he was at the six o'clock position she was at the 8 o'clock. Neville was across from him at the 11 o'clock position in a small cave and Abby was at the 4 o'clock position to his right. Harry checked his watch and waited for the secound hand to tick by. He waited almost a minute and a half before he sighted in on his first target. A kobold guarding the tunnel they came from at the front of camp. He was so close his eye filled up Harry's scope. He squeezed the trigger and the kobolds head exploded. There was a small flash of light that was blocked by the charms, the bolt carrier cycled, and the brass shell spit out the side of the rifle making a small clinking sound. Harry took out the guard ten feet to the left of that guard and he too dropped.

For close a minute and a half they took out a combined 112 kobolds all around the camp. Harry was going to drop his next guy when a shout sounded from the camp and a frag grenade exploded from his left. That sent the remaining 133 kobolds into a panic. Shouts sounded. Clattering of armor sounded. And over the top of all of it was with sound of three more grenades going off rocking the cavern. Harry rolled into a kneeling position on one knee and used his left elbow on his knee as a tripod as he he started dropping the remaining kobolds. He saw a kobold run to the cage with the spiders and try to open it but Harry got him before he could. He took a few seconds to spray the cage with bullets killing the spiders inside. He did the same with the other cage with bugs in it too. Harry saw the big purple worn backing up down the tunnel.

He pulled the rpg out of his bag and took aim at the big worm's ass. He fired and the rpg hit the back of the worm blowing a huge hole in it and casing it to let out a screech. Harry slammed a fresh rpg into the launcher and hit it again. This time the worm stopped moving. Harry sprayed the big worm with a burst of M4 fire to make sure it was dead. He spotted the five kobolds wizards that were controlling the worm and dropped them with a short burst. When they fell the cavern fell silent. Harry scanned the camp with his eyes and magic and felt just a few weak dying life forms.

"Call out!" Harry called out.

"CLear!" Neville called out.

"Clear!" Abby yelled.

"All Clear from my end but I feel a few of them down there!" Hermione said.

"I'm Headed down to do a sweep! No more explosives!" Harry called out before he hopped on his broom and flew down.

He switched to his MP5 and swept into the camp from the front checking tents as he went. There were a few tents on fire thanks to the grenades upsetting oil lamps. He put them out as he went. Neville joined him in the search. They found a few wounded kobolds and put them down as they swept through. It took ten minutes to check all the tents. They found 26 half dead kobolds and they finished the job on them. Harry called the all clear and the girls came down to check things out. Harry threw up a barrier spell over the tunnel leading deeper into the mine and lit a cigar as they looted the camp. They found carts of blue stone. Crates of swords made of the gold material. Hermione finally got a chance to study the gold metal as they boxed up all the swords, spears, and plate armor off the dead kobolds.

"This is electrum, well it's more brass and iron but there is gold and silver here too. Figure about 40% brass and 40% steel rest is 10% gold, and 10% silver. This sword is about three pounds. 19 ounces of steel, 19 ounces of brass, 5 ounces of gold, and 5 ounces of silver.

"So every what, 21 swords is a 100 ounce gold and a 100 ounce silver bar, a 25lb steel ingot, and a 25 lb brass ingot? Not bad. We can use the steel. In fact I have half a mind to strip mine the land between Hamilton and Ely using cutting charms and dynamite. It's all good usable ore. With my control of the spell I can refine tons of ore with one spell." Harry said eating a sandwich from his bag.

"I'm more interested in the blue stone. All crystals and gemstones have a place in potions. When you pulverize rose quartz into a fine dust and add it to healing tonics it increases the potency. That was what the potions book I found said. I wonder with pulverized blue, red, and green stone does?" Hermione said looking at the baseball sized glowing blue crystal in her hand.

"We'll have time to look it over. For now we need to clean up and clear out. We need to get teams down here to excavate, clean this all out. I'm not kidding about strip mining the land. We don't really need money but the raw ore is too good to pass up. Maybe we can figure out how this blue stone works to make flying ships." Harry said chomping on his sandwich.

"How can you eat in here? It smells like burnt flesh and shit down here." Abby asked.

"Easy, I'm hungry and I hate the meal bars. I didn't eat I just loaded mags. This is lunch, super late lunch by the way, and this is a chicken bacon club sandwich. This dungeon crawling is a lot tougher then I thought." Harry said with a smirk.

"Dungeon crawling! Man I love this time line!" Neville said turning dead kobolds into coins and pocketing them.

"I wonder how far we are from the Ely mine." Harry said looking at the big purple worm in the tunnel.

"I'm not sure. We can tunnel through once we clear out the mine." Hermione said.

"Yeah, we need to finish clearing the mine. What do you think is down there? More kobolds? Spiders? Something bigger?" Harry asked as he finished his sandwich and started helping with the clean up.

"Yes to all of it. I have a feeling we're going to be really tested before this is over." Neville said with a big grin.

"You my dear brother have issues." Harry said patting the bigger man on the back.

It took the better part of an hour to clean up everything into trunks. When they portkeyed out the only thing they left was the shoddy built stone wall. When they landed in the cube it was close to six. They all headed off in different directions with Harry headed to Hamilton to talk to the mayor about reopening the mine and also talk about mining the blue stone. He brought up the idea of strip mining and they would look into it as they started excavate the blue stone along with all the ore in the walls. Abby took the dead bodies of the kobolds outside the town walls and burned the them on a big pire before coming back to the cube to help Hermione and Alice run tests on the blue stone.

Neville took all the trunks full of junk to the storage room and dumped them out before he cast the goblin spell on all the electrum. He turned 259 spears, 221 short swords, 149 sets of plate armor, 143 daggers, 16 mining carts, 167 pic akese, and 357 long heavy tent poles into 190 gold bars, 190 silver bars, 1,900 brass bars, and 1,900 steel bars. He also had a pile of blues stone and 50 leather tents. After he put away all the bars he headed out to the dining room and saw the women working with the blue stone. Harry walked in, saw them working and headed into the kitchen to get dinner started. By the time dinner was ready an hour later Hermione had a good understanding of the blue stone.

"SO what does it do?" Harry asked.

"Blue stone absorbs and conducts magic. Like a power stone used in wards it takes in ambient magic, stores it, and when you need it you can pull from it to power something. That's why they use them for the airships. The enchantments that keep the ship in the air draw power from the blue stones which in turn draw power from the air around the ship." Hermione said.

"And red stone can amplify magic cast into it. Like dark ritual magic." Alice said.

"Can it hold a spell to be released later?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure. What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked.

"Like a bombarda spell, can we make magical hand grenades?" Harry asked.

"In theory sure? For now I want to run some tests on this blue stone." She said.

"I'm going to clean our guns and load up more mags incase we run into something bigger tomorrow." Harry said.

"Good thinking I'll help you with that." Neville said.

For the next three hours the boys went over all the weapons, stripping them down, cleaning them, and loading them. For the most part they used their M4's a lot that day so Harry made a few more expanded mags for the guns and they loaded them up for the next day. Harry and Neville set the four vests loaded down with mags and grenades on the dining room table and saw Hermione, Abby, and Alice working on a potion in the kitchen.

"Oh good Harry, can you turn this blue stone into a fine powder?" Hermione asked looking over the potion.

"Sure, what are we talking about? Sugar grain? Flour? Corn starch?" Harry asked walking into the kitchen.

"As fine as the goblin spell will make it. Then I want yo the dump it in the cauldron." She said mixing the big cauldron with a big gold ladle.

"Okay, but then I'm tapped out." Harry said.

"Good you can be our test subject." Hermione said with a grin.

"I don't like the sound of that at all." Harry said turning the big box of blue stone rocks into a big pile of super fine powder. In fact as soon as the spell ended the room was covered in glowing blue dust. Harry waved his wand around the room and soon all the blue dust was in the cauldron.

"Safe to say that was fine enough." Neville said coughing up blue stone dust.

"Yeah Mia, this stuff's not going to kill us right?" Harry said sneezing.

"No and in fact I think this might be done." She said hushing out the fire and ladling a few ounces of glowing blue potion into a glass test tube. They could all feel the power coming off the cauldron.

"Mia, what did you make?" Harry asked.

"Mana potion. Or that's what I'm hoping it does. It's a way to let us keep fighting. Look at today, we went for six hours and we were almost all tapped out. You could have kept going but the three of us were done. With this potion we could have kept going. It's a potion from the book you found in the office of the mayor's mage. The book says the potion has it's roots in Pepper Up and it does. It's based on Pepper up and the logic of how that potion works. Everything we looked at says this will work." She said looking at the glowing blue potion.

"Mia, if it's based on Pepper and easy to brew then why don't they sell it in stores already? Why does this all sound like theory?" Harry asked.

"Because it's based on our Pepper up. The one from our timeline. In fact as soon as I looked at the root of the potion and the ingredients list I knew it. We've been brewing it since we were in second year! But our Pepper up is not their pepper up. Their potion is the old way of doing things with rift magic added to the mix. Ground crystal is the way their magic works." She said excitedly.

"Look, I trust you with my life and you know I'm not as smart as you are when it comes to this stuff. If you can explain it to me in dumb down talk I'll happily take your potion." Harry said.

"Right, um, Meatballs!" Hermione said looking around the kitchen.

"Okay, you got my attention." Harry said.

"Say you make meatballs one way. Let's say you make them out of beef. But here they make them out of pork. You follow me so far?" She asked.

"Beef Pork, got it." Harry said as Neville nodded next to him.

"Okay now say there's a cookbook that has a recipe for tex mex meatballs. The recipe calls for beef and chili powder. Now if you've only ever made pork meatballs and you have no idea you could make beef meatballs then you would fuck up the tex mex meatballs until you got it right. But if you know how to make beef meatballs and all you have to do is add the chilli powder you'd have a leg up right?" she asked.

"So you're holding Tex Mex meatballs in your hand?" Harry asked following along.

"Bingo! The problem is we don't know how much chili powder to add to the mix so we need someone that can handle the spice to try it first before we burn our mouth. Got it?" She asked.

"Got it. We made a potion that restores power to our cores and you added an ass load of blue stone and you need me to go first because I have the biggest core to fill up before I'm maxed out." Harry said putting it all together.

"You know you're not as dumb as you let on." Hermione said.

"I practically failed my way through five years of potions. But cooking I understand. From now on you want to explain something use cooking. So hand it over. Lets see what your meatball tastes like." Harry said.

"We have to do this scientifically we need to do a baseline reading for you to see where you're at and then we need to feed you an exact amount and see how much your numbers go up. We have to start slow. This is going to take a minute." Hermione said pulling out a clipboard and pen. She cast a few spells and took some notes.

"What am I at?" Harry asked.

"62 out of a possible 340, you are drained. That last spell really did you in I bet." She said as Abby measured out blue potion in a glass tube with numbers.

"I have 10 mils of blue potion ready Mia." Abby said eyeballing the side of the glass tube to make sure she had it right.

"Good, Harry drink this." Hermione said handing him the glass tube.

"Down the hatch." Harry said shooting the blue potion. It was such a small amount that he didn't even taste it.

"How do you feel?" Hermione asked running scans.

"No change." Harry said with a shrug.

"Well your numbers just jumped up 10 points." Hermione said.

"You're kidding? I don't feel a thing." Harry said.

"Abby measure out 50 mils." Hermione said making notes on her chart.

"Got it." Abby said again taking her time to look at the side to make sure it was right.

"Here drink this." Hermione said handing it to him. Harry shot it back and this time he tasted a salty taste before he felt a small jitter in his belly.

"I felt that one. A small jitter in my stomach like a shot of espresso." Harry said.

"Good, your numbers just jumped up by 50 points. How are you feeling? Any pain? Nasua?" Hermione asked.

"No, just a small flutter in my belly for a second and then it was gone. Let's take this to the edge." Harry said.

"You sure?" Hermione asked.

"I'm good, I've got 218 points to go before I'm topped off. Give me 200 mils and let's see what happens." Harry said.

"Abby give him 150 mils and we will see if this potion stays on a linear curve." Hermione said.

"Chicken." Harry said.

"150 mils." Abby said handing over the potion and looking worried.

"You sure?" Hermione asked holding out the potion.

"Yeah. let see what this ride feels like." Harry said taking the big tube full of 5 ounces of glowing blue potion and chugging it. The rush hit him hard and fast. It felt like a shot of adrenaline to the heart. He never did cocaine but he bet this was what the rush felt like. He felt like he never needed to sleep again. He felt like he chugged a 12 pack of Red Bull. His teeth felt itchy. The hair all over his body was standing on edge.

"Harry?" Hermione asked touching him.

"I'm Fine! Ami talking loud!? It feels like I'm talking loud!? How was that? What's my numbers looking like?! Was that good?! My tongue feels dry!" Harry said.

"Harry, I think we have our limit. Your numbers shot up 160 points and they keep climbing you're hovering at 282, 285, 291, 299. There your numbers leveled off. That was a jump of 177 points. Go take a lap and make some 100 ml flasks with screw caps to burn off that energy. Neville it's your turn. Your at 81 out of a possible 280." Hermione said making a new chart.

It took running through everyone to narrow down a dosage. 100 milliliters or about 3.4 ounces of what Harry was calling Mana potion would give you 100 points back to you core. Harry made small round bottomed glass flasks with aluminum screw caps and they spent the rest of the evening filling little potions flasks. They ended up with 1,600 of them thanks to Hermione huge cauldron. They each took ten and put the rest in boxes.


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning they all woke up with a bit of a hangover from the Mana potion. They had a heavy meal and loaded up with all their equipment before they portkeyed into the mine right into the big room where the war camp was. The room was empty just like they left it. However there was a group of twenty kobolds trying the break through Harry's barrier spell. Harry swung his M4 up, dropped the selector to full auto and hosed the group down with a spray of full auto. Neville was a second behind him and he added to the mess. In three seconds they dropped them all. He summoned the gold weapons off the bodies, shrank them and handed them to Hermione before clearing a path.

Harry shouldered his M4 and headed down the tunnel with the group following his lead. Like the other tunnels they seemed follow the blue stone veins in the rock. They followed the tunnel for a few steps and saw a sharp curve left and down ahead. Harry jogged ahead and looked around the bend. He saw about two dozen king sized kobolds in full gold war plate armor with swords, shields, spears, and daggers approaching up the tunnel. Harry pulled a flashbang off his vest, held it up for his group to see, before he pulled the pin, and tossed it at the group that was about thirty foot down the hall. The grenade bounced once right in front of the group before it popped.

Harry and Neville rolled around the corner and sprayed the group with copper jacketed lead. The sound of the flash bang and the bullets pinging off the armor alerted another detachment of 25 kobold troops further down the tunnel. They came charging into the bullet storm and fell before they knew it was too late. Harry and Neville both changed mags and ran up to the pile of dead lizard men littering the ten foot wide tunnel. They check to make sure they were dead as the girls started collecting the loot.

"We're going to scout ahead a bit to see if any more troops are headed our way thanks to the flashbang. We'll have an open line to you over the magical comms. We're not headed too deep we just want to get ahead of this if more are coming." Harry said as the jogged up the tunnel, they saw it curved to the right again and leveled off more into a gentler slope.

"How many do you think are down here Harry?" Neville asked.

"I think a fuck ton. The raiding party that was gathered at the war camp was almost 300 strong. I have a feeling these 60 troops were coming to join the party. I bet that tunnel was about a day and a half from being complete. Besides the plate armor and weapons were forged by a trained hand." Harry said with a hint of regret.

"What's with the tone of voice? What's a trained hand mean?" Neville asked looking confused.

"A trained hand means skilled craftsmen and intelligence. That means blacksmiths. That means a trade guild. That means a society. That means a town, hell it might be a city full of these things. That means brother that there might be as many as thousands of them underground. It also means that they are not just mindless beasts. They are a people. A town with women and children. You get it?" Harry said looking at Neville.

"I don't kill inocent women and children." Neville said.

"Right, that's what I've been thinking about since last night. Trying to rationalize what we're doing down here. The only thing I can think about is what Abby and Hermione said. They eat their young or the weaker kobolds. And they were going to eat us. In that case they are like the goblins. Smart enough to be a danger to us but still feral. So when I find a nest of eggs I'm going to cook it with a fire spell and toss the contents out like the kobolds themselves." Harry said.

"We agree Harry, it's a dirty job to exterminate a species but it has to be done. Just like we take out king snakes and big spiders. And besides, we don't know this is all the kobolds in the world. There could be pockets of them all over the world." Hermione said over the ear buds in their ears.

"Fuck I forgot we were on comms. But I'm glad we got that out in the open." Harry said.

"We understand. We're jogging to catch up." Abby said.

"Copy, we're clear so far." Harry said as they slowed way down.

"Which is starting to unnerve me a bit. The patrols and mining teams were always a few hundred feet apart from each other." Neville said.

"In active dig sites. These tunnels feel older. More lived in and most of the blue stone is mined out. They just left enough in the walls and floor to see and we're only seeing this well because of the night vision charm. I have a feeling we're going to run into a few more groups of troops headed for the war camp." Harry said as the girls came jogging up to them.

"So no other groups?" Abby asked.

"Not yet. But soon I think." Harry said. But he was wrong. They walked at a good fast pace for over an hour before they encountered anything.

"You hear that?" Harry asked stopping and holding up his hand.

"Sounds like grinding." Neville said.

"It's coming from the wall I think." Abby said turning to the left side wall only for the ground to shift beneath her feet.

The ground buckled up as a big rhino like creature with thick silver plate like armored hide came bursting out of the ground. Harry hit it with a short burst from his M4 but the creature just turned and looked at him. In fact it turned it's whole body towards Harry and it started to charge at him before Neville blasted the silver rhino with his 1885 high wall rifle. The long brass and steel spike hit the rhino in the shoulder and tore a big hole through the creatures whole body coming out the other end and embedded itself in the cave wall. The creature screamed and reared up exposing it's softer belly. Harry sprayed the underbelly with a short burst to the chest area killing it. The creature landed on the floor of the tunnel and let out it's dying breath.

"What the fuck kind of pokemon is that!?" Harry half asked and half yelled.

"I'm not sure but we're taking it with us. Did you see how the plates on it's back took those 5.56 rounds?" Hermione asked turning the silver rhino into a small silver figurine of the creature and put it in her bag.

"Well between the sounds that thing made and the sound of the spike embedding into the wall I think there is a good chance…" Neville never got to finish that sentence as Abby who was looking down the tunnel turned and shot at a group of six smaller kobolds that came charging out of the darkness with their spears up. Harry and Neville turned and took out the last three.

"Hunting party?" Harry asked looking at the smaller unarmored kobolds.

"Maybe." Neville said as Hermione stripped the spears and daggers off their belts.

"Either way look alive." Harry said leading them deeper into the mine.

They traveled for six hours and took out 48 more smaller sized kobolds and 6 white spiders. At this point they were so far underground that they had to test to see if their portkeys would work this far down. They did but the feeling was uncomfortable. Harry landed in the Marshal's office feeling dizzy, disoriented, short of breath, and his ears popped so hard he thought they might be bleeding.

"Everything going okay?" John asked from his desk.

"Yeah, we had to test the portkey to make sure they work. And now that I think about it, if it didn't work that could have killed me. I really have to be more careful about shit like that." Harry said healing his ears.

"You plan on going back the same way? Seems a might bit dangerous." John asked.

"Yeah, I think two portkeys on the return trip and all subsequent trips. This is going to suck." Harry said looking through his portkey buttons and taking the one to the war camp room. That trip was easy and smooth. He set up a few more paired portkeys and then took the portkey to get back to the group.

"How did it go?" Hermione asked.

"It sucked. Unless we're going to die we need to take this portkey back to the war camp room and then take our portkey to the surface." Harry said handing out buttons to each of them.

"Well on the upside if we are being chased down by hundreds of kobolds portkeying to the war room will put about five or six miles between us and the hoard." Neville said.

"You know, I've been thinking about the hoard that might be down here. So far all we've seen is swords and spears. They have no ranged weapons. Our best bet might be to draw them into the tunnel and hose them down. We can even throw up a bunch of one way barriers to keep them back and still allow us to take them out." Harry said leading them deeper.

"It's a good idea." Neville agreed. They headed even deeper under ground before they came to a fork in the road.

"This was what I was worried about." Harry said as Hermione scanned the two tunnels.

"Getting lost?" Neville asked.

"That and having to go one way and double back to go the other way." Harry said.

"Can't we just set up a portkey to this juncture and pop back?" Abby asked.

"We might if this is the only fork in the road. If there are dozens more then we're fucked." Harry said scratching his chin.

"Just so you know, I've been drawing a crude map as we've gone along." Hermione said pulling out a small notebook and showing Harry the diagram of the mine. It was essentially a simple point and line diagram with titles for the points and estimations of distance for the line segments.

"And we could berroir off the tunnels to stop lizard men from following us down this side or from heading up the tunnel we just came from." Neville said.

"Good call, let's do this. Maybe this is a small offshoot tunnel connected to something." Harry said putting up a one way barrier at the mouth of the two forks and leading the group down the right tunnel.

They followed the tunnel for about ten minutes before they started hearing something. It sounded like banging and scraping. They slowed down as the approached a bigger room and saw that this was a mine. There were about 60 smaller kobolds mining bluestone as well as gold, silver, copper, and steel out of the walls of this bigger 300 foot room with 60 foot ceilings. They had a few of the silver plated rhinos pulling carts made of the same gold metal they used for everything full of gold crates of blue stone. Harry pointed out the six sliver creatures and had them all pull out their 1885 high wall rifles as he threw up a barrier spell over the mouth of the tunnel.

"Each of you pick a cart and take out the silver rhinos. Try to get a broadside shot to get them both. Don't worry about drawing attention to yourself. I'll take care of the kobolds." Harry said sticking with his M4.

"Right. Line up a shot. We go on Harry's count." Neville said.

"3,2,1, Go." Harry said. All three of them fired. They all got good hits and 2 of the 6 died from head shots.

The three reloaded as the creatures all panicked and started thrashing about making the lizard men look in their direction. Harry calmly started dropping them with head shots as they figured out what was going on and grabbed daggers off their belts or the pick axes they were using and charged the group. Harry took out 18 of them in the ten seconds it took for them to all charge the barrier. Once they all stacked up like that Harry hit them all with a full auto spray and took the rest of them down in seconds as the other three finished the rhinos off with a second shot from their high wall rifles.

Harry moved through the barrier and searched the big cave for more threats be there were no more threats. It took them a few minutes to loot the mine and the miners but soon they popped back to the fork in the tunnel and as an added bonus there was a small detachment of 30 armored kobold troops trying to bring down the barrier. Harry emptied his mag into the troops as the rest of the group got their guns up. By the time they had a chance to shot there were only a few of them left. It took them a minute to loot the troops before they moved into the left tunnel.

Harry loaded a new mag into his M4 and took point. At this point he was tired of killing these things. Not even the thought of all this good blue stone and metal they were going to get from this deep mine helped to cheer him up. Thankfully the end was near. The tunnel leveled off and started to head up on a steep angle. In just a couple of miles the tunnel must have gone up to almost the surface. They saw the tunnel get wider until it opened up into a huge cavern bigger then the war camp room. Harry donned his cloak and took his broom out and went to check it out. What he found was a small city in the huge domed cave that was about a half mile across and five hundred feet tall. Half the room was taken up by a small lake that must have been an underground well before they excavated the room.

The whole room was covered in blue stone. Almost as if this was once one big blue stone and they hollowed it out. The city was made up of about a hundred gold cubes of varying sizes surrounding a bigger gold cube in the middle. In the back of the cave was a big football field mushroom patch of glowing blue mushrooms. There were cages in the town full of big gurb looking bugs and white spiders.

"What do you see Harry?" Hermione asked.

"A fucking city of these things. There are about a hundred 10x10 foot box style houses made of gold metal and covered in blue stone surrounding a bigger building made of gold and blue stone. I can see about 400 smaller kobolds walking around the city tended to things like the big mushroom patches and cages full of big bugs. I can also see an area off to the side with coal forges and anvils like a work area. The smoke coming off the foges is traveling up to a hole in the top of the dome. I think we might be under something like a cave or mine shaft. I think we might have gotten lucky. It seems like all the bigger kobolds have left the city. I'm tempted to light a few dozen sticks of dynamite and just drop them on the city and just come in to clean up." Harry said.

"That's not a bad idea but I like your first idea better. Let's provoke an attack and hose them down as they attack the tunnel." Neville said.

"Sounds good. I'll start the fight and bring them to you. Be ready but don't shoot me." Harry said.

He took off his cloak as he hovered up a few hundred feet off the floor of the cave. He pulled the three flashbangs off his vest, pulled the pins and tossed them down onto the town. The sound and bright flash caused all the kobolds to scream and panic. They all pulled out knives and swords and looked for the threat. Harry lobbed a grenade into the center of town and when it blew up taking seven kobolds with it they all looked up. Harry dropped the other three grenades he had on to the town before he shouldered his M4 and started raining down bullets at the lizards. They slung rocks and chucked spears at him but he was too far up. When his mag ran dry after killed about a hundred of them he dove for the tunnel. He flew in a few dozen feet and threw up the barrier spell.

He dropped down next to his group who were all waiting with their rifles up. Harry slammed home a fresh mag as the kobolds came rushing into the tunnel like a swarm. He waited until they hit the barrier before he opened fire signaling the group to start shooting as well. They all fired short bursts into the hoard dropping the little monsters by the dozens every second. It was genocide. Plain and simple. No matter how many of them went down they still kept coming. It was a sick comfort in a way. A confirmation that no matter how advanced they might seem they were still mindless beasts when they were provoked.

Four minutes. That's what it took to kill more than 500 kobolds. Harry stopped counting at this point. Harry summoned all the dead bodies into a big expanded crate before they headed into the city to finish this off. They split up and scanned the town looking for any survivors. That was when the mages attacked with fireball spells from the top of the bigger building in the center of town. Harry rolled out of the way in time. So did Neville and Abby but Hermione's hair got a little singends.

"Fall back!" Harry called out as he hopped on his broom to get above them and started shooting at them. He dropped one as they shot spells at him. He dodged out of the way but at this point they were fucked because the other three were on booms and they shot the shit out of them. As the last one died he groaned out.

"Must protect master…" That stopped Harry in his tracks.

"Master? What the fuck is he talking about? who's their master?" Harry asked.

"I am!" Came a voice booming from the big building. Two big doors blew open and a huge 50 foot long ten foot wide blue serpent with six pairs of legs slithered out of the building where they could see a hoard of treasure including a ton of crushed blue stone and gold coins.

"Right. Thank's for letting us know." Harry said spraying the huge serpent with a burst of assault rifle rounds. All of them bounced off its hide. "Right." Harry said as the blue serpent laughed at him in a hissing deep chuckle.

"Now it's my turn." It said before it opened it's big mouth full of teeth and blasted a lightning bolt at Harry. He rolled out of the way but he still felt a few hundred volts of electricity course through his body causing him to lock up and fall off his broom. He managed to land with a roll but his broom went flying off. He had just enough time to shake the stars out of his eyes before the blue serpent was on him. It raked him with it's six claws on it's left side. None of them went through his coat but the force spun him around. That's when he felt the jaws lock on the right side of his body. The teeth punctured his coat and stopped at his outer vest, but the force of the bite crushed his ribs. At this point the other three flew over and started to attack.

Neville, having seen the rifle rounds do nothing to the serpent pulled out his high wall and shot it through the back making sure the spike didn't hit Harry who was still clutched in the creature's jaws. He reloaded and hit it again. This time the round penetrated deep and the creature dropped Harry as it roared.

"THat's right fuck face! Come at me!" Neville called out as Abby hit it in the side with her high wall rifle. She reloaded and hit it again as it headed for Neville.

Hermione hit it with her rifle and it roared up and shot a lighting bolt out of it's mouth at her she got away and hit it again opening a big hole in the side of it's head and making it thrash about. At this point Harry was sitting up on the floor and conscious enough to to pull out his high wall and hit it in the back as it lunged for Neville. It turned to look at Harry with murder in it's eyes. It was obviously not prepared for the power of their guns and if it was going down it was taking Harry with it. As Harry loaded in the next round and brought the gun up the serpent lunged at him. He blasted it in the head but it wasn't enough to stop the serpent. It took a bite at him but Harry rolled out of the way from the big mouth but in his roll the beast biting down on his legs with enough force to rip through the dragon hide pants he was wearing and practically sever his legs right off. It thrashed about and slammed Harry to the floor knocking him out.

"Get off my brother!" Neville yelled blasting the serpent in the back as Hermione and Abby got it from the sides. Neville reloaded and took it out with one last round to it's back. The serpent spit Harry out, who at this point, was barely alive. Hermione rushed up to him and started casting healing spells at him as Abby poured a few healing tonics down his throat.

"Fuck! Stop with the potions please! I'm drowning here!" Harry said choking and sputtering.

"Sorry for saving your dumb life!" Abby said looking hurt.

"No I'm sorry I yelled. But I literally have healing tonic in my lungs." Harry said choking and hacking.

"I thought you were dead!" She said hugging him.

"So did I. Did we get him?" Harry asked getting his coughing under control. He pulled out his canteen and took a deep drink as he hecked up the last bit of potion.

"Yeah, we got him. You good?" Neville asked from his position by the head of the beast.

"Yeah, let's finish clearing this fucking town out and get the hell out of here." Harry said summoning his broom and M4 to him as he looked at his legs. "FUck! I just got these pants broken in." Harry said looking at the holes in his leather pants and the red bite marks on his legs.

"Your pants Harry? Your pissed about the fucking pants?" Abby asked looking at him with an incredulous look.

"No but I can't be pissed I got my ass handed to me by a big fuck off snake lizard thing. Now let's get back to work." Harry said making them all laugh.

Harry sent them off to check the city as he went into the big building through the big doors the serpent came out of. The building was 60x40 and about 60 foot high. It was, like all the buildings in the town a single room on the inside. The room was covered in piles of smelted gold slugs and chunks of blue stone piled ten feet high around the whole room. In the center of the room was a hole in the ground about 15 foot across at the mouth and it expanded as it went down. It looked like it was twenty foot deep and forty foot wide at the bottom. Inside the hole was more blue stone. And sitting in the blue stone were hundreds of ostrich sized eggs.

Harry pulled out a few expanded trunks and summoned the big piles of bluestone out of the hole. He hit the big hole full of eggs with a fire spells hot enough to turn the eggs and shells into ash. He summoned all the blue stone in the building into the trunks and he cast the goblin charm at the big building and turned it into a big stack of gold, silver, brass, and steel bars. In fact he started doing it to all the buildings.

As if hiding his guilt over wiping out a species of lizard men Harry turned the small city into a huge pile of metal bars. The rest of the group, feeling the same uneasy feeling Harry was started shrinking the bars and boxing them up in trunks. Harry felt the drain on his core but he just drank a mana potion and kept going. It took him a half hour of flying around on his broom and 5 mana potions to clean out the town. He started melting two or three buildings at a time to melt the whole city down to bars.

Between the city and all the weapons, tools, and things in the town they ended up with 25,500 one hundred ounce gold bars. 25,500 one hundred ounce silver bars. 65,500 lead bars. 61,700 brass bars, and 67,900 steel bars. Harry also summoned up all the brass shell casings and as well as the lead and copper jacketed slugs out of the dead lizard men. He turned them into a few bricks and Harry was so dead by the time he finished he landed and almost fell over.

"I think we need to call it a night. We'll set up some port keys and come back tomorrow to see where that hole in the ceiling goes to. For now let's get home. You think we can portkey from here?" Neville asked.

"We have to be close enough to the surface. I'll go first and tell you if it's safe." Harry said taking the portkey to the marshal's office for the second time that day but this time the trip was fine.

"It's fine, come on up." Harry said looking outside at the dark skies. He checked his watch and saw it was just after eight. They were down in the mine for twelve hours today. Harry sat through dinner at the boarding house before headed off to the cube. He stayed up just long enough to take a hot shower before he hit the bed and slept like the dead.

The whole night he kept thinking about the eggs. There were hundreds of them. His nightmares were two fold. The guilt of burning the unborn kobolds in their eggs haunted him but so did the idea that if they never would have came to this timeline those eggs would have hatched and everyone would have been fucked. Hundreds more of those lizard beasts would have swept through the land like a plage. No one would have stopped them.

They all slept in the next morning. Harry was the first one up at eleven. He threw on some flannel pants and a tshirt and headed off to the kitchen to make breakfast. That was where Hermione found him when she got up a half hour later. He was making waffles in the waffle iron on the counter, frying bacon in a big skillet, and mixing strips of steak, onions, and green peppers in a frying pan.

"Hey, you need a hand with that?" She asked grabbing a cup of coffee from the french press on the counter.

"From you, no. I'm good." Harry said.

"Fine, be like that. Jerk." She said. "I'm not that bad." She muttered.

"I've seen you brun water before." Harry said.

"How was I supposed to know water could just flash steam like that?" She shot back.

"I'm good. I got this." Harry said laughing at his sister.

"Alright smart ass. On a serious note how are you feeling today?" She asked running scans on him.

"Fine I guess. I'm not a young as I used to be. It takes longer to heal after almost dying." Harry said.

"You got dark circles under your eyes. Did you sleep last night?" She asked.

"I did, but not well." Harry admitted.

"Feeling guilty?" She asked.

"I found the nest yesterday. It was under the big building. There were hundreds of eggs. I burned them all." Harry said.

"Harry why is this bugging you so much? I've seen you shoot men in the face that were begging for their lives. Why is a nest of lizard eggs bugging you this much?" She asked.

"I don't know." Harry said.

"Is it because they were helpless eggs and they were not attacking you?" She asked.

"Maybe? All I know is, I've killed thousands of people. I've been active for almost 20 years as an operative and I averaged two or three kills a day, but yesterday, slaughtering those kobolds was the closest I've come to feeling dirty. I've tortured information out of guys. Cut and gut people, executed them at point blank range and the mass killing of a lesser species was, I think, the step too far for me." He said flipping his bacon.

"You've gone hunting, you've blasted deer heads clean off. You've snapped rabbit necks that you summoned out of the woods. You eat chicken eggs. What's the difference?" She asked.

"I don't know. Mia, I. Don't. Know. and it's not going to be fixed with a conversation. It's not something I'm going to just talk out. This is going to live with me for a while and some day I'll be able to tell you why I feel like this but for now I'm going to put it behind me. I'm choosing to think about all the people we saved by stopping them before they could tunnel out of their caves and slaughter all the humans in the state. Now I'm going to continue to make breakfast. Then I'm going to put on my gear, and guns, and go to fucking work because I'm a soldier and it's what do." Harry said turning away from his sister and going back to work on breakfast.

Hermione looked like she wanted to say something but Abby, who was standing in the doorway tapped her on the shoulder and shook her head. Hermione shrugged and walked away. Abby made a cup of coffee and took a set on the counter away from the work area.

"When are you going to have my breakfast ready?" She asked.

"Your breakfast?" Harry asked turning to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, my breakfast. As your wife I expect my breakfast to be waiting for me at the table. It's one of the rules of marriage. Just like you have to wear tight pants so I can look at your ass and you have to keep your face scruffy enough to look sexy but not enough to be scratchy." She said holding up her left hand to show off the rings which she never took off.

"SO let me get this straight, I am to have your meals on the table when you expect them, and wear tight revealing pants, and look sexy for you?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Yes, you also have to take care of me, love me, and you know, obey me or some such." she said trying to keep a straight face.

"Right, so I have to do all that, and what do I get in return?" Harry asked.

"Well, there's sex with a woman that's this hot, also you know, you get to spend all your free time with me." Abby said with a big innocent smile.

"Right, I'm getting ripped off, I want a refund." Harry said going back to his work.

"Refund! How dare you!" She said looking indignant.

"Yeah, you think I could trade you in for a better model? One that's lower maintenance. Maybe I can trade you in for Alice. She's an older bird but she's nice to me, she can cook, she runs her shop, the town, and keeps her family together. Also she's my boss and I figure if I'm sleeping with my boss I'll get a raise out of the deal too." Harry said.

"I was going to argue but you do have a point. Alice is a much better catch. Too bad you're stuck with me. You should have read the fine print before you gave me the ring." She said. As he flipped a few things and came over to her.

"Then again I didn't do too bad. You're not Alice but I think you'll do for now. If you're nicer to me." Harry said stepping into her space and kissing her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him back. He broke the kiss and planted a few kisses along her cheek.

"Thank you for making me smile." Harry said softly.

"It's my job. It's part of my end of the deal. Just because you don't want to talk doesn't mean you have to live with a heavy mind. Now go finish breakfast. I'm hungry. After that we're going back to bed. Maybe I can heal some of those dark spots." She said smacking him on the ass as she walked out of the kitchen.

Harry smiled at her back as she walked out of the room. He went back to his work and for the first time since yesterday afternoon he felt lighter. Normal, and more human. Harry brought platters of waffles, bacon, fresh orange juice, coffee, thick toast with butter and jam, and big steak and cheese omelets out to the table. They stuffed themselves and went back to bed.

When they emerged after the sun went down they got dressed and headed out into the town to check in with Smith about the firearms company, marshall John about the town, and generally just to talk to folks. It felt like a long time since they just walked through town. They dropped off the seven silver rhinos and the big blue serpent at Kate's farm to be skinned and butchered. It turned out the rhinos were bulettes, and the big serpent was a behir. Both hides would make for good armor and the meat was edible. They had diner at the border house and headed back home to relax. The boys stripped and cleaned the guns for the second time in as many days. The girls and Alice worked on the red and blue stone they had trying to find more uses for it.

"We went through about 5,000 rounds of 556 ammo. We're lucky we have so much of it." Neville said loading mags using the speed loader to ram 30 rounds at a time into the expanded 300 round mags.

"I collected most of the spent brass we fired down there. We need to start reloading it." Harry said pulling out the trunk with the spent brass shell casings.

"You know, I was thinking maybe we stop using 5.56 guns. We hardly use our 556 ARs for humans any more. We use our B&S guns for marshal work. We use 9mm for house clearing stealth wet work. The 556 we used in the tunnels because of the over penetration. We were shooting through the little fuckers and hitting the guys behind them. We were getting double and triple kills but just barely. If we were using a stronger rifle round we would have cleared that hoard faster. Now we could use the 300 win mag rifles but with the long barrels they are too big and unwieldy to use in the same capacity for close quarters suppressive fire. But we need them for long range work. With magical optics I've made kills with that 300 win mag rifle at 3,000 yards. The 458 socom rifles are good for big things, but overkill for human sized targets and you can't rapid fire that gun. We need to upgrade our op guns to fit the job we have." Neville said.

"Ak47?" Harry asked.

"7.62x39 is a bigger bullet but slower. We need 308. We have to see what we have in the trunks for 7.62x51. We also need to look at maybe upgrading the MP5 to a UMP .45 or a p90. Maybe a short barreled 556 AR. We don't need the 500 nitro rifles any more. We have the winchester high walls for big things and the 4 bore rifles for if we run into huge things like dragons. We don't need to carry back up 9mm handguns because we all have the guns you gave us and we hardly ever draw them. Basically we need to test the effectiveness of all our gear. As it stands all our modern wet work gear is either under or overkill." Neville said.

"We should also try to streamline our gear down to a few calibers so we don't have to reload so much once we run out of bulk ammo we brought back. I like 9mm. Especially the 147 grain enchanted red brass hollow points. They hit harder then the 556 but don't over penetrate. I don't want to add .45 to our gear. It's too powerful for close range wet work and to slow for long range kills over 100 feet. If we're using 7.62x51 rifles we don't need the 300 win mag rifles. We can use Smith's barrel enchantment on a 16 inch rifle barrel to give us long range accuracy. So right there we just cut two calibers and eliminated the need for a third." Harry said.

"All I'm saying is we have trunks full of guns. There might be better options out there. I think we each take a few options with us and test them out." Neville said.

"Let's go make a trunk full of guns we can test. We'll carry a bunch different guns on us and try them out as we go about our business. We've used guns like the MP5K, the Falkor 300 win mag, and the tricked out M4s for so long we know what they feel like. Maybe we'll stumble on to something good." Harry said leading his brother to the storage room.

It took an hour of looking at different options but they each ended up with two replacement guns for their M4s in 7.62x51 and two 9mm Mp5 replacements. Harry found a HK417 with a 16 inch barrel and a Galil Ace with a 20 inch barrel for his M4 replacements, and a Sig MPX with an 8 inch barrel and a B&T ACP9. Neville went with a SCAR-H with a 16 inch barrel and a FN FAL in the Para configuration with a folding stock and 16 inch barrel. For his MP5 replacements he found a Kriss Vector in 9mm and a Vityaz-SN which was a cut down AK74 in 9mm.

The boys spent another hour transferring magical sights, grips, and slings over to their new toys. Neville copied the mags and with Harry's help he enchanted them as Harry worked on the guns. By the time they headed off to bed they had really powerful guns that were better then the guns they were replacing. Not that they would stop carrying their old guns as back ups for now, but once they narrowed it down to a rifle and submachine gun then they would ditch their old guns in favor of this new streamlined package.

The next morning they popped back to the underground city cave and they flew up into the hole in the ceiling. It turned out to be a cave and it took Abby all of a few minutes looking around to figure out where they were.

"This is the Lehman caves." Abby said.

"How can you be so sure?" Harry asked looking around the dark caves full of stalagmites.

"I know because these caves are huge and I know where we were headed on the map. These caves are famous. In the future they are going to hold tours of these caves. They go on for a few miles. They should be empty but with the dark shit running around I think we should just seal the hole up and not dig too deep for now. As it is we have all the tunnel system totally sealed off from the outside world. I think we can hire some miners to start excavating the blue stone and metal veins that line the tunnel walls. We can sit on all the blue stone and sell it to ship building companies at a good price. We have a huge surplus." Abby said leading them all back down the hole.

"So we're done then? The tunnels and caves of this place are safe for miners?" Harry asked.

"I think so. We haven't seen anything down here since we cleared it out." Hermione said running scans over the big room.

"Still we want to be cautious. As we saw with the bulete shit can just come through the ground and kill you. I think we should start on the tunnel under Hamilton. We can split the profits with the town if the men work the mine. We'll also finish digging the hole to Ely's mine shaft and cut the same deal with Ely. both teams of miners can start making their way down the tunnel between the two places and when they meet in the middle we'll set up a mining camp in the war room and have the men start headed this way. All the while we'll keep checking for anything that might be in the walls. But I can tell you this now. It's going to take years to get all of this excavated. Even if we got a team of magicals down here to do it it's going to take a long time to get all of it." Neville said.

"That all sounds good to me. The less time I have to spend in these tunnels the better. That being said with some loose mined rock we could build a little town down here like the kobolds had. With a sunlight charm and the enchantment to make the ceiling look like the sky this big cave could be a safe place to live. We might even be able to house all the miners down here. This cave is close to the surface, has a water supply, and with some permanent portkeys it would be easy to get to and from the surface." Harry said looking around the huge room.

"More things we can look into later. For now we'll head back and tell the Hamilton miners it's safe to work the tunnels." Neville said.

"We also have to get the mail and fly a patrol of the county. It's been a few days." Abby said.

"Work, it never stops." Harry said holding out a portkey for the group.


	13. Chapter 13

AN: my group was getting a little antsy and the girls wanted to play more combat centric characters. and we are added two more characters to the group in the next few chapters. this chapter is kind of facts heavy. it marks a two month jump in in the plot to cover a lot of things the group wanted to accomplish.

The month of January blazed right into February and almost two weeks into March before the group had a chance to slow down and take a break. Everyone was busy as hell building up the mining expedition into the tunnels, their budding firearms empire, airship construction, magic stone research, and building up the marshal office by padding up the team with new hires. On top of all that they were getting more calls for help everyday.

On the mining front Harry contracted the town of Hamilton and the Harrison mining company out of Ely to mine the tunnel that ran between the war room and the Hamilton mine. The take would be split 50/25/25 with the group getting the bigger take and all the non-precious metal that came out of the mine. In both cases they were thrilled to work the mine once they saw how much blue stone, gold, and silver ran through the mine.

As a result of this new contract the town of Hamilton grew in population to 200 residents in the first week of the new year as miners from nearby Salt Lake came over to take jobs in the mine. Harry built a simple house with expansion charms on the inside to provide barracks like living quarters for the new men. It was crazy how a 10x20 foot small cinderblock building that was 10 foot tall could become a 100x200 foot apartment building that had 5 floors on the inside with ten small one bedroom apartments on each floor. Harry drained himself making that thing.

The tunnel had about 5 feet of good mineable material on all sides. And as the tunnel got bigger their profits went through the roof. They set up a deal with the bank in Salt Lake to move all the gold, silver, and blue stone that came out of the mine at $24 an ounce for gold, $12 and ounce for silver, and $5 a pound for blue stone. Profits took a bigger jump when they figured out they could use the goblin spell to make 5 pound blue stone blocks that sold for $7 a pound.

They were pulling about 2,000 pounds of blue stone out of the mine every week. They were also averaging about 2,000 ounces of pure gold and 3,200 ounces of silver a week. The magic in the mine that made bluestone also made the other metal veins richer. When you added this to the gold, silver, and bluestone they pulled out of the mine when they raided the kobold city they never had to worry about money ever again. They cashed in as much silver as they could for $50 gold coins. They now had a trunk full of shrunken trunks full of bags of gold coins. Each trunk had $250,000. At last count they had 45 trunks so far. They also had trunks full of 100 ounce gold bars.

The girls with help from Alice, and her granddaughter Mary worked on new ways to use the glowing magical stones. They found that blue stone was a good substitution for magical batteries that charged off the magic in the air around them, and when fully powered and glowing they could store huge amounts of energy that could be tapped by adding it to a rune driven spell. Within weeks of study the town of Eureka had extremely powerful wards. So powerful that they glowed at night giving off a nice blue light acted as street lights for the town. The wards also served as a beacon for the town that could be seen for hundreds miles.

With the success of the new powerhouse wards Hamilton and Ely soon got an upgrade as well. But the girls knew these new wards could be used for more. It took some playing around with ward shaping but soon they figured out the wards could act as beacons on the road. The girls set ups 25 foot tall telephone poles made of steel reinforced wood on the side of the road every five miles from Eureka to Hamilton.

The wards on the top of the pole stretched out for fifty feet in all directions and on the pole was a call button linked to the communication station in the marshal's office. The idea was that if you broke down, or if you got hurt, or even if you were being chased by a creature you could run to a pole, hit the call button and stay relatively safe as help arrived from the nearby town. The poles also acted as beacons on the road for lost travelers throwing off light for hundreds of feet. In the first week they were up they got two calls and the average wait time was two minutes. In both cases the dire wolves and coyotes ran off before Harry got there.

Seeing the good they did Ely had them set up beacons from Hamilton to Ely and from Ely to West Wendam. By the end of the month the beacons saved dozens of lives and they had to deal with less walking dead. They doubled the number of beacons at every 2.5 miles and Salt Lake set up beacons every 2.5 miles on the road to the city from West Wendam with the calls directed to the Marshal's station closest to the pole. They added portkey markers to each pole and numbered them like mile markers to cut response time down to 30 seconds and cut patrol times way down. They still patrolled the roads once a week but with the call boxes they didn't have to patrol three times a week. Also with less deaths on the roads they had less undead to deal with.

The girls also figured out that red stone had similar charging capabilities as blue stone but could not be time released. It was not a battery substitute that recharged off ambient magic. It did however chanel powerful magic better than a wand. A reducto curse fired through a charged and glowing red stone 'wand' was three to four times more powerful. But the red stone was brittle when it was charged and glowing. Worse than that It was also subject to shock triggering. If a red stone was glowing and you dropped it you better pray it landed softly or it was going to explode. However when it was not charged you could hit it with a hammer and it would shatter like glass.

Which means if you charged it up with raw power and tossed it the stone acted like nitroglycerin. A small one inch cube of red stone charged to glowing and thrown into a hard surface exploded with more force than a cube of C4. Things got more stable and even more explosive when they ground it up into a fine powder and added just enough water to make it a thin paste. The paste took more force to set it off but a small 50ml glass test tube of glowing red paste had the same explosive power of two full sticks of TNT. Once they figured that out they strip minded the red stone mine they came from and ground the red stone they got from the mine into powder for later use.

One of those uses was magical grenades. They were essentially a 50 ml aluminum tube full of glowing red paste with a 5 second time delay detonator cap sitting in the center of a round cast iron ball with an expansion charm on the inside and the tube was surrounded by 100 buck shot balls. The prototype grenade exploded sending buck shot and shrapnel flying in every direction for a hundred feet. Just the concussive force of the explosion was enough to kill a man if you were standing within 25 foot of the blast. The girls were both really proud and slightly horrified with themselves for creating something so deadly from stuff they had laying around the cube and Smith's workshop. The boys just high fived and requested a case of 50 of them.

While the girls were working on all that Harry and Neville were working on a few projects with William Young, the Night Wolf's head engineer, and his three sons. They started by stripping out the rusty steam turbines and magical boilers from the night wolf. After they pulled it all out Harry spent a day studying the system with Neville. After years of modifying cars and planes the two hoby grease monkeys knew the steam system was inefficient. Harry took their findings to the girls. Two days later they were handed blueprints for a mixed bluestone and redstone engine system. It used a big blue stone block to power red stone paste. The red stone paste superheated conjured water making high pressure steam. The steam then went through a steam turbine with more compression. The turbine was directly connected to the propshaft. With new redesigned propellers and forcing cones on the exhaust ports the ship now had a top speed of over 650 mph and the engine room was more spacious with better access to the system and had a more comfortable ambient temperature.

Willam was extremely happy with the changes to the Night Wolf. Harry and Neville on the other hand, saw potential in the new system. They patented the system and the red stone paste. They also started drawing up plans for a smaller fighter jet sized ship. By the end of January they had a fleet of fifty ships. Because why copy the parts for one ship when you can make big batches of parts. The ship was based on the Night Wolf as well as the Delta7 Jedi Starfighter from the star wars prequel movies. It was an an arrow head shaped single seater design. They named it the Wolf Pack class fighter after the Night Wolf. It was 20 foot long from the nose to the tip of the tailfin and 10 foot wide from wingtip to wingtip and made of one inch thick enchanted steel armor plates and thick enchanted glass.

Under all the armor plates the inside of the ship was expanded to house three scaled down blue and red stone steam engines. Huge blue stone blocks to power the broom enchantments that gave the airships the ability to hover and fly were added to the empty spaces in the wings. In the front Harry added two belt fed 50 caliber machine guns and a belt fed 20mm cannon copped off his P51 Mustang. The cock pit was also a copy of Harry's very comfortable mustang and used all of the same controls to fly the fighter giving the little ship a super maneuverability. When the ships were done Hermione and her crew of newly hired skilled enchanters went to work on the ships they adding blue stone driven wards, cloaking, they lightened it all the way down as far as they could meaning the fighter weighed as much as the guns, ammo, and the pilot.

When they were done Harry made the first test flights in the first wolf pack fighter they made call sign Wolf One and within minutes of lift off he knew he never needed to use his mustang again. He hit 850 mph at full throttle but the ship started to shake after a few seconds. But it cruised smooth as glass at 800 mph and it was stable all the way down to a hover. Harry flew south west of the town and made a few strafing runs at the targets he set up and his grin got bigger. Harry took Wolf One through a few combat maneuvers before he got bold and started doing loops, flips, rolls and flat spins. The fighter was as maneuverable as a broom. His grin got bigger. He headed back to town and landed in the space next to Alice's shop without disturbing the ground or the two buildings, hopped out of his fighter, and high fived his brother with the biggest grin he ever had.

"THat good?" Neville asked excitedly.

"Better. 850 mph with a smooth cruise speed of 800. Full control from 0 to 800 mph. It as maneuverable as our brooms. Hell we even calibrated the guns perfectly. I'm going to add cargo doors and a rotating hardpoint rack in the unused bulkhead space behind the front landing leg. I bet you could fit two eight point racks in here. That's 16 Hellfire missiles or guided bombs. I think I'm going to make mine black with red pin striping and a red tribal wolf head on the nose." Harry said looking at the little fighter.

"I want to make mine red and white like Obi-wan Kenobi's from the movie. I can't believe Mia didn't call us out for making a jedi starfighter." Neville said.

"She didn't know it was, the prequels are very forgettable. If we would have made X-wings like we wanted to in the first place then we would have been yelled at." Harry said.

"Yeah, this was a better call." Neville said laughing.

The boys made the modifications to the ships and soon there was a rack of black shrunken Wolf Pack fighters in the cargo bay of the Night Wolf and each one of them had a custom fighter in their bags.

On the gun business front they produced 5,000 winchester rifle barrel and magazine tube kits to turn 44-40 rifles into 38XL rifles. The barrel had the accuracy enchantment on it and the mag tube was expanded to hold 140 rounds. The set cost $60. $65 if you had them install it. If you traded in your barrel and mag tube they took $5 off the price or they swapped out the barrel and mag tube for free. They also replaced all the marshals and sheriffs 44-40 rifles with 38XL. The barrel sets became an instant hit as did the .38XL cartridge. They were expensive but they hit harder then a 45 long colt, they were more accurate, and they put bigger holes in things on top of being smokeless.

Business was so good. They had to hire 25 more wizards to help Smith build guns and reload ammo. Harry put them up in the houses at the end of main street and had them swear a magical oath to not reveal trade secrets. They expanded the shop to a 20x30 foot cinderblock shack Harry built behind Shoth's shop and expanded to a 200x300 foot warehouse space with magical heating, plumbing, and lighting. They were building guns and reloading ammo at a staggering rate. Their stockpile was growing but so was their customer base. They expanded north to Twin Falls and Boise Idaho. West to Reno and Carson City Nevada, south to Flagstaff Arizona, and southeast to Albuquerque and Santa Fe New Mexico or at least it would be New Mexico at some point, right now it was contested territory.

In each case Harry would take the Night Wolf or his plane to the city and meet with the town marshal and introduce himself. He would show off the guns and using the cargo bay of the Night Wolf he would let the marshals test out the guns. The cargo bay was set up with a 20x25 foot cinder block cube. Inside the cube was a huge 100x135 foot shooting range with 30 shooting stalls with copies of all the guns they sold. A few days later using the portkey he set up in their offices he would be back with one of the girls and they would hand out guns and vests. A few days later they would open a pop up tent store in the town and by the week's end they would need a real store front and someone to run it full time. They hired eight more sales girls and eight more guards to run the stores in each city.

Sales were way up. They were doing about $47,000 a week in sales and with every new store they opened they would see a $3,250 a week steady boost in sales after the first wave of purchases. They couldn't figure out why people were buying so many expensive guns and why they were getting so many repeat customers. It turned out that the gold engraved guns made for the perfect gifts. In fact they started getting a lot of requests for custom engraved handles. They also sold a lot of plane jane guns to folks that could just barely afford them. The key was the indestructible charms on the guns. Sure a base Model 1 was five times the cost of a new colt peacemaker but the but the Model 1 was a gun your grand kids would still be using in a hundred years. People were buying B&S guns for looks but they were also investing in a forever gun.

To keep up with demand and to make sure they had a steady 50,000 gun surplus Harry and Neville spent one day a week making thousands of gun parts. With the mana potion they were able to pump out 5,000 guns. It took all day and at the end of the day they crashed but the next day they were able to spring back into action. With the amount of B&S guns floating around the west they were getting interest from local army battalion commanders. They started buying plain Model 1s and Model 2's, dragonhide vests, and ammo for their men. They sold to military at the same half price discount they gave to law enforcement. They were hoping to get a real, government paid for, military contract one day. They made themselves available to any high ranking military official that walked into one of their stores, and they were always happy to hand out free fancy Model 1's to anyone with brass on their uniform.

But while they waited for a high ranking general to send them a letter requesting a contract They spent time looking at the stock of modern guns they brought back with them trying to find the next gun to add to the line up. They introduced three more guns in the month of February and spent some time building up a small surplus of the gun.

They made 5,000 copies of the 4 bore rifles they had. They also made improvements to the already impressive rifles and ammo. The guns, now called the Model 4, had a recoil and feather light charm on them dropping the weight from 35 pounds to 7 pounds and the recoil from break your shoulder hard to just a bit more kick then a 12 gauge shotgun. The guns had a starting price of $250 and the price went up as you added things. You could purchase regular ammo for the gun and they sold it for $.50 a round. It was powerful enough to take out things like king snake and giant spiders with one hit but they also made an explosive hard hitting anti-dragon round as well.

The dragon ammo was a thing of magical beauty. The already huge 4 bore rounds were handed off to Hermione and Abby. A few days later they handed Harry a brass ten inch long three inch wide mortar shell casing and a three pound brass artillery shell with a steel core full of red stone paste and a blasting cap. Both items were covered in runes and glowing with power.

The shell casing was packed with Smith's magical black powder and the shell was locked in place. As soon as the shell was charged the round shrank in size to fit the gun. When it was fired the shell grew in size as it spun through the air to it's target. When it hit, the brass shell crushed and split along the cut lines and set off the blasting cap and detonating the redstone paste sending the steel and brass shrapnel inside the target. They fired it into the side of the mountain and blew a dumpster sized hole into the rock face. The rounds cost $5 each and had to be hand engraved by one of the ten wizards they had on staff that could do enchantments and hand poured and sealed by Hermione or Abby. The good news was it would take out a big dragon with one hit no matter where you hit it. It would also probably take out an airship too so they were cautious about who they sold the rounds to.

They also introduced the Taurus Raging Judge revolver with a 6 inch barrel as the Model 5 after Hermione filled the patent paperwork on it. The guns were extremely expensive with the base model gun starting at $225. But for that price you got an enchanted 6 shot revolver that could shoot .454 casull (renamed .454 B&S), brass .410 shotgun shells, and .45 long colt. They also put an expansion charm on the cylinder making it long enough to take .45-70 rounds too. The guns came with sound deadening charms and recoil enchantments.

They also sold the same gun with a rifle stock, a 16 inch barrel, a blast shield covering the cylinder gap, and a wood foregrip as the Model 6 for $250. The guns came with the same sound deadening charms and recoil enchantments as the 6 inch model 5. With the standard accuracy charms and buck shot or .45 long colt you could use the revolver as a short barreled rifle. But with the bigger rounds and an attached scope it made a good long range rifle capable of hitting targets up to a 400 yards. They also made speed loaders for the gun. In theory, the model 6 was faster and easier to use then the Winchester rifle. It might only have 6 rounds but the quick reload and not having to cock the lever every shot ment it was a better rifle.

Both guns came with a box of 25 B&S .454 brass jacketed 300 grain bullets, a 50 round box of smokeless 45. Long colt, a box of 25 brass .410 buckshot, leather and fur lined sleeve, and a leather gun belt for the Model 5. Both guns were advertised as anti dire wolf and huge spider guns. They were unsure how well the guns would do so they only made a few thousand copies of the Model 5 and the Model 6. They sold a 1,000 of each of them them in the first week alone. Almost all of them were the plain jane guns with stock wood furniture.

The trick with the models 4&5 was the price of ammo. A box of 50 smokeless .45LC was $2.50. But a box of 25 brass jacketed hollow point hunter rounds B&S .454 was $5. When people were buying the guns they were buying $25-$75 worth of ammo with it. They made a killing on the guns and Harry started looking for the next gun they would 'invent'.

Harry was looking at the pump shotgun as an option He enchanted the mag tube on his winchester 1897 pump action 12 gauge shotgun to hold 60 brass buck and ball shot shells and started carrying it along side his rifle. The gun was the first pump shotgun ever invented and the model he had was a trench gun from WWI which means in had a heat shield around the barrel and the ability to slam fire. By holding down the trigger you could work the action and every time you slammed it home I fired automatically. Meaning you could blast off all 60 shots as fast as you could pump the shotgun. He also added a better peep and brass bead sights, a sling with 25 shotgun shell loops, a leather butt pad, and a new stock and fore grip that fit the hand better and gave you a better grip. All the modifications gave the gun better range, aim, and quicker follow up shots. He made a 10 copies and handed them out to his team for testing. Funny thing is they got a lot of chances to test them in the month of February.

Harry spent the whole month of February and March answering calls made by Marshals and Sheriffs from the new towns they expanded into. It seemed that word of both B&S's guns as well as their reputation for getting the job done traveled fast in the west. Between the articles in local papers that got picked up by the newspapers in the next town over and word of mouth Harry and Neville were as busy as ever. They of course could have said no to these calls. They were after all not local, but Harry and Neville could never stand by and not help.

But with the ever growing expanse of territory and the amount of work coming in they had to recruit some more folks to the team. They sat down and hammered out a list of qualifications and personality traits they were looking for. To start with they wanted killers. If they couldn't confirm at least a dozen kills on their record they didn't want to even look at them. The job, most of the time, was our town is being hassled by this or that kind of magical monster. But confirmed kills ment they only had two pools of men they could look at, cops and convicts.

They ended up with a men from both category thanks to the second thing they looked for which was a balanced sense of morality. They didn't want serial killers that liked to torture women and children. But they also didn't want boy scout goody two shoes either. Like Harry and Neville themselves and most of the Operatives they worked with at the DOM they had to be men willing to risk their lives to save innocent people but they also had to be men willing to shoot a man in the knee if that man had information you needed. This cut the list even shorter.

They also figured out that each person on the team had to act as a specialist. Be it heavy weapons, marksman, magic powerhouse, or face man. They would all be able to handle most things but having their roles mapped out before they were hired would make things go easier. The hope was that after a few months with Harry and Neville leading them the four new recruits could form one new team and go off on their own as the first B&S Security and investigation team.

Harry had the more questionable moral outlook on life so his team was made up of lawmen. His team was also the last one to be formed as it took a lot longer to comb through the marshal and sheriff records then it did to track down two honest crooks. In fact within a week of looking they found them two criminals and they liberated from a life of crime. Starting with the first man they recruited to join the team. Neville's future face man and magical powerhouse Billy Bayles.

Billy grew up the son of a saloon girl and a random John in Dodge city. He was a wizard but he never got conventional training for his magic. Instead he was taught by a card shark how to read minds, and cast illusions and glamours. Basically skills he could use to cheat at cards. Over the years he developed an odd way to cast battle magic. He would imbue a playing card with one of four types of magic: Fire, ice, lightning, or aicd. Then he would flick the card at his opponent and it would explode whatever magic effect he put on the card. On top of that he was a very good shot with a pistol and he could flick a knife just as well as he could flick a card. As you could expect with his skill set he made a long list of enemies all over the west. The problem was no one knew his real face. He looked different in every town we walked into.

But a cheater could only run for so long before his past caught up to him. And it did in Salt Lake City. He stayed one night too long in the city and hit one too many poker tables. A group of eight hired thugs tracked him to a whore house in low town. They knew he was a night owl so they tried to get him at dawn. They snuck in, made their way to his room, kicked in his door, and tried to kill him.

Unfortunately they ran into two issues. One, Billy slept with a cut down S&W schofield snubnose under his pillow, and two, he knew how to setup basic wards around his door. The second they approached the door with intent to kill him he jumped out of his sleep with his gun in his hand. A second later when the door was kicked in he shot the three men that barged into his room. He grabbed his deck of cards out of his coat and blasted the hallway with ice killing two more of them. But the last two men rolled around the doorway and got two shot off at him before they ran.

That's when the marshals showed up and took out the last two as they ran down the stairs. The marshals found Billy in his room trying to put on his pants and hold his bleeding belly at the same time as a half dressed redhead cried under the covers. Hermione and Harry were called in to help him and to make sure Billy didn't use magic to escape. Which he tried to do as soon as Hermione healed his wounds and fed him a healing potion. Billy tried to blind everyone in the room with a flash of light from his hand. Unfortunately he was weak and Harry saw it coming a mile away. He hit Billy with a stunner as Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Amiture move that was way to telagraphed and easy to spot. The card trick stuff is comically bad as well." She said finishing up the bandage job she started.

Harry however saw potential in the younger man. When his sister was done with the younger man Harry packed up the boy's things and took him back to Eureka. He put him in a holding cell in the back of the newly renovated Marshal's office and sat next to the cell on a comfortable chair. As the boy slept Harry read his surface thoughts and used them to dig deeper into the boy's mind. An hour later Harry saw movement.

"I know you're awake son, you have none of your things, hell you barely have pants on, and on top of that you're badly wounded. You were shot twice in the gut. One of the bullets ripped up your spleen and the other one tore through most of your large intestines. Even with magic you're going to be sore for days. And yes, I'm magical and more powerful then you can ever imagine. So why don't you roll over and we'll have a nice little talk." Harry said in a calm but commanding tone. Billy, for his part was tensed up from the first word Harry said but he sighed and rolled over accepting his fate.

"So this is a jail cell?" Billy asked with a smirk but Harry could see the pain in his movements and the fear in his eyes.

"Son, cut the shit, this ain't the first jail cell you've seen. I read your thoughts while you were knocked out. Billy Bayles, 19 years old, born and raised in Dodge City Kansas at the Red Lady Saloon. Magical but not trained. You learned a few tricks to get you through life cheating at cards." Harry ran off from memory.

"So what's there to talk about? You read my thoughts, you know my crimes, not much left for me to confess to. Now if you'll leave me be I'll just go back to sleep now. Not much else to do in jail." Billy said getting defencive.

"Reading a man's thoughts and getting to know a man are two different things son. Besides, who said you're going to have to stay in this cell?" Harry said pushing the cell door open to show it was unlocked.

"I'm not being arrested?" Billy asked looking confused.

"Nope. I read your mind remember? I've seen all of your crimes and I've seen a few running themes. Yes you cheat at cards, but you don't cheat people that can't afford to lose. You've killed upwards of 50 men, but always in self defence and you try not to shoot first. You go out of your way to help women and children you meet along the way. You treat working girls with respect, and you never committed a crime I haven't commented in my life at some point. No, you're not under arrest, but son if you keep going like you are you're going end up broke and dead by the time you turn thirty. You never make more than a few hundred dollars in a city before you have to make a run for the next town. You have just enough skills to get by but as you saw today it's not enough. I think worst of all is the lack of trust and the feeling of fear you live with. That's going to put you in the ground fast. When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?" Harry asked and at first he thought Billy would ignore the question but he saw a sadness fall over the young man's eyes.

"It's been a while." Billy said holding his belly as he sat up.

"That's what I thought. Well, you're not in Salt Lake City Utah anymore. You're in Eureka Nevada. In this town no one knows you, no one's is going to try to kill you, and if they were thinking about it they would never try because they know I would be on them faster than they could form a plan in their heads. I got you a room in the Red Door saloon. It's paid up for a week. I also paid for a girl named Kitty to look after you for a few days. She's a nice girl and she has the potions you have to take for the next few days. You're not going to be able to eat or move around too much for a day or two. Rest and recuperate." Harry said helping the young man stand up.

"Why are you helping me?" Billy asked.

"Because I see potential in you son. With some training in the magical arts and some practical training in tactics you'll be a dangerous man. The training comes with a job working for me and my brother as a Marshal working emergency magical calls. The job pays $10 a day and a cut of any loot or bounties we collect. Plus free room and board, and expenses like guns, ammo, and better playing cards." Harry said popping them into Kitty's room in the saloon and laying the young man on the bed.

"Form card shark to Marshal?" Billy asked with a smirk.

"Why not? I used to kill people for government for a living before we came here. I still do if you think about it." Harry said with a smirk as he opened the door and called a cute blond girl in he early twenties into the room. She was dressed in a white night dress and a silk robe. She had a silver tray with a bowl of soup and fresh baked bread.

"This is the patient? He's cute." She asked with a smile.

"Take care of him Kitty, he's a soon to be Marshal on Neville's magical task force." Harry said.

"In that case we better get you back on your feet." She said taking a seat on the bed next to him and taking his chin in her hand to look him over.

"Thank you sir. I didn't catch your name." Billy said looking confused.

"Marshal Steel, Harry steel." Harry said tossing a smirk at the boy as he left the room and kitty started fussing over him.

A week later he moved into the house next to Doris's boarding house and was handed a set of black King Snake leathers. A gun belt with two Model 1's a shoulder rig with two model 2's and two dozen small razor sharp throwing knives. He was also handed a gold encased redstone wand and a year one spell book.

"A wand and spell books?" Billy asked.

"Yes, I expect you to learn everything in that book. If you have questions My sister or wife can help you with anything. Also here, take this." Harry said handing him a gold deck box.

"Fancy Cards? You know the cards I use explode right?" Billy asked pulling out the deck of crisp playing cards with nice sharp edges, bright colored artwork and gold leafing.

"I do know that, I also know that the cards you're holding are conjured. They last for an hour outside the box. At any time you can pull a fresh set of cards from the box and the set old you have in your hand will vanish. These should fly better and take a magical charge better. Basiclly better throws and bigger booms." Harry said.

"I don't know what to say Harry, thank you." Billy said looking down at the cards.

"Look kid, you're the first team member we hired. We didn't go searching for you. You fell into our lap. Call it fate, call it luck. Either way I'm happy to have you on the team. Now it's your day off, what do you have going on today?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to spend the day with Kitty. First I'm going to escort her to Salt Lake city for some shopping then I'm going to take her to the dinner at the boarding house. Jon Philip set aside the chef's table for me. After that I have a poker game set up at the casino." Billy said.

"Poker game?" Harry asked eyeing the boy.

"It's a straight game Harry, something I set up with Marshal John, and and a few of the old timers in town. They wanted me to teach them a few trick and show them how to read a tell." Billy said with a smirk.

"Good. have fun and before I forget, this is one and a half month's back pay from the start of the year. Don't spend it all in one place." Harry said handing Billy $460 in a small bag.

"Thanks Harry!" Billy said looking at the $20 coins.

The other member of Neville's team and the second man they hired was a Drow or dark elf assassin named Valos from the other side of the rift. Valos was born and raised underground in a drow city. But the Drow culture was a Matriarchy that treated men like slaves. He was taken by the ruling house and used as a miner in the caves under the city at the age of eight. Six years later he escaped the underground city but the surface was just as unkind to him. His dark bluish purple skin, white hair, silver eyes, and pointy ears made him an outcast wherever he went.

Valos found a home with the Black Hand Brotherhood of assassins. There he learned his dark skin and night vision was an asset and not a curse. Over the next six years he honed his skills and body but as he trained another aspect of himself came out. He had access to magical powers locked deep inside of him. The arcane masters of the Brotherhood unbound his magic and his memories.

He was the son of a ruling house, a prince. Which in the drow society meant little more than he was to be used as a marriage offering to other noble houses. But it meant he had rights. It meant he should have never been a slave. As his powers came back and he trained harder his memories came back in bits and pieces. His family was murdered, his castle was sacked and burned, and he was sold into slavery.

He vowed he would become the best assassin in the world so he could one day go back to the Drow kingdom and take his revenge. Two years of training in the dark arts of the Brotherhood shadow magic made him the best assassin in the brotherhood. He was a ghost that would stalk his pray from the shadows until the time was right. Then he would strike like a pit viper, and vanish like a ghost. One year later after practicing his craft he made good on his vow. He made his way into the underground city, murdered the ruling clan king and queen, sacked the vaults of the castle, and set fire to the castle.

With his wealth he got arrogant. He bought his way out of the Brotherhood, bought a big castle and a fleet of ships, and lived like a king for the next five years. Until drow assassin came for him in the night. It seemed like an Eye for an Eye was the way the drow culture worked. The assassins didn't manage to kill him but they did burn his house and half of his fleet of ships before he killed them all. He tried to go back to the Brotherhood for protection but once you were out, you stayed out for life. He was without sanctuary in the city. He sold his remaining ships and he ran. But everywhere he went the assassins followed. He killed them all but he had to pack up and move to a new town every time they found him. On top of that it cost a lot of gold to make a new identity for himself. That included new glamour amulets to take on a new face, identity papers, letters of nobility, and confidential contacts in the new city. The average cost of a move was thousands of gold pieces. His pile of gold coins kept getting smaller and smaller every move he made. Then the rifts started opening up. With nowhere to go, and very little gold to his name Valos took his chances and jumped through a rift.

He landed in the Nevada desert where his glamour amulet stopped working. Once again he was looked at with scorn because of his skin color, eyes and ears. But his gold coins were worth a hell of a lot more here than they were in his home world. Each coin was a little more than an ounce of gold. His 800 gold coins were worth $12,000. But money only got you so far when no one talk to you because of your skin tone. His salvation came when he finally found a witch in Boulder Colorado that could make him a glamour amulet. It cost him $8,000 and it would only last a few years but it was worth it. He was allowed to live a normal life again.

But with almost no money to his name he had to get a job and the only job he knew how to do was assassin. So he set up shop in Denver and started taking contracts. With access to firearms, and a contact at a few bars in town he had a steady stream of work. He had a good reputation for getting the job done and the marshals left him alone because he only killed bad guys and he never killed women, children, or innocent people.

He was a cleaner and on a few occasions Marshal Walter White hired him to take care of a few men he couldn't touch. Valos was the second name Walter gave to Harry when he came looking for talent. Harry set up a meeting with the assassin through a contact at a bar in the bad neighborhood in Denver. Harry sat at the bar waiting for the Assassin.

"You have a job for me?" Asked a man dressed in all black with a long black leather duster with a hood asked sitting next to Harry at the bar. The thing was the tall thin man wasn't there a few seconds ago and Harry didn't feel him take a seat.

"I do. How would you like to be a deputy Marshal on a special magical task force?" Harry asked setting a silver marshal's star on the bar.

"Is this a joke?" Valos asked in his oddly accented english. Harry knew he was from the other side of the rift but in his head he tried to match the accent to something he knew and he guessed it would be close to Russian but it was like a Russian villain. It was smooth and soft and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Think Russian sounding English but spoken by a Spaniard.

"No, the job pays $10 a day and a cut of any loot or bounty we collect. On top of that the job comes with free room and board. It also comes with a free glamour amulet that is much better than the one you have on now." Harry said.

"You can see through the glamour?" Valos asked.

"Yes, the person that sold you it was banking on you not being powerful enough to see her shoddy work. How much did you pay?" Harry asked ordering two glasses of top shelf scotch.

"$8,000." Valos said looking pissed off.

"Yeah, she fucked you good. So do you want the job?" Harry asked taking a drink from his glass.

"What kind of work is it?" Valos asked.

"Cleaning up dangerous magical creatures from your realm as well as the general scum that walks the earth. You will be provided armor, firearms, ammo, and any other items you need to do your job. You will also have access to a portkey network and airships. So are you in?" Harry asked.

"I'm in. I have to take care of a few things in the city but I'll be ready by the end of the week. Where should I meet you?" Valos asked.

"The star is a portkey. Pin it on your coat, put your hand over the star, and say Eureka Marshal's office and you'll be transported to the office. This is an enchanted bag with leather armor. Wear the armor and use the bag to collect your things." Harry said handing Valos a black leather carpet bag.

"You are very magical." Valos said.

"Yes, but my sister is better. When you arrive in town she will have a glamour amulet ready for you. This coin bag has a month and a half's back pay as well as the payment for taking this meeting." Harry said setting a small black leather coin bag on the bar.

"It's an honor doing business with you Mr?" Volas asked holding out his hand.

"Marshal Steel, Harry Steel." Harry said shaking his hand and setting a few silver dollars on the bar "For the drinks." Harry said before he vanished without a sound making Valos smirk.

At the end of the week Valos landed in the Marshal's office off to the side in a 8x8 foot area walled off by a half wall and was met by Deputy Teddy sitting at the front desk.

"Can I help you with something Marshal?" Teddy asked looking at the tall thin man dressed in all black. He was wearing black King Snake leather pants, vest, and long coat, over a black collared shirt, black tie, and a wide brimmed black hat shading his face. He had a few black canvas and leather bags over his shoulders.

"Valos, I here to meet Marshal Steel about a job." Valos said

"Right, Harry said you would be stopping by. He's in his office. I'll take you back there now. Would you like some coffee or a doughnut? They're fresh." Teddy said leading Valos deeper into the now hugely expanded marshal's office.

"Don't mind if I do." Valos said with a smirk as he topped off a coffee cup from the big brass coffee maker on a table by the door and took a long john from the tray. "You guys alway eat like this?" He asked.

"We do since chef Jon Philip moved into the boarding house. He has his guys drop of a big try of pastries every morning and the coffee maker is magic. It's always full of good hot coffee." Teddy said leading Valos down the hall to a door marked Magical Division. Through the door was a big 80x90 foot room was divided into six offices all facing out with glass walls and doors, a big cage off to the side for holding prisoners, and two room in the back with heavy steel doors. Each office had a big wood desk and comfortable leather chairs. All of the offices were empty except for Harry in the back corner office. Harry stood up from his desk and smiled when he saw him.

"Good you made it. Let's get you geared up and then I can show you where you'll be staying. Thank's for bringing him in here Teddy, I got it from here." Harry said coming out to the open area in the center.

"Nice place we got here." Valos said finishing his long john as Teddy took his leave.

"Yeah, I made it. I made this whole place. This is going to be your office over here. You'll be working for my brother Neville when we have two full teams but for now you'll be working with the both of us." Harry said showing him into the first office on the left side.

"Wow, I get an office and everything. This is all real." Valos said setting his bags down on the brown leather wingback chair in the corner.

"Yes it's real. We're going to be the most well respected Marshal's in the west. The guys they call when things go bad. We have to have nice offices. Now I know you like to do things from the shadows with blades and you have your own daggers and knives but I made a few different knives and swords for you to look at. All of them are enchanted to be razor sharp and unbreakable. Also some of the daggers have hot knife enchantment on them and some of them have a poison injection system built in. We also have a full section of B&S guns for you to pick and choose from." Harry said pointing out the two dozen black anodized steel knives and swords on the leather topped desk in the room.

"You made these?" Valos asked picking up an Italian stiletto dagger with a 10 inch long three sided blade with a dragon bone handle and a blue gem in the pummel.

"I did it with a spell. All of the knives and guns were made by me or my brother. He's the Blackwell in the Blackwell and Stell gun company. That knife has the poison injection by the way. I have it loaded with 40 ounces of King Snake venom. Holding down the blue gem for three seconds right before you use it will activate the poison. One ounce per charge." Harry said.

"These are all very nice, I will test all of this equipment and pick and choose what works best for me." Valos said looking impressed.

"Well the training room is that door on the right and the shooting range and armory in the door on the left. I figured you can pick a few guns now and we'll get you set up with a bag and holsters. Then we'll head to the house where you'll be staying." Harry said showing him how to open the firing range door. Room was sectioned off into two parts with a 60 foot long 15 foot wide four stall shooting range to the left and a gun cage to the right. The cage was full of shiny B&S guns in rack and on shelves. Crates of ammo, boxes of speed loaders, racks with potions, racks of cavalry sabers, knives, and a clothing rack with leather vests, pants, and long coats on hangers.

"Take whatever you need, just mark it down on this list. My sister is meticulous when it comes to keeping track of inventory." Harry said grabbing a clipboard off a hook by the door.

"I don't even know where to start." Valos said looking at all the shiny steel.

"Start with one of these bags. They can hold a hell of a lot, put things in and when you want them think about what you're reaching for and it shows up in the bag." He said grabbing a bag off the rack and handing it to him.

"Bag of holding! Nice. I had one of these a long time ago." Valos said.

"So they have something like this on your side of the rift? well, do me a favor, don't tell my sister. She invented that as our work bag about ten or so years ago. Anyways moving on to handguns. We have Model 1's, 2's, 3's and 5's. Any of these guns can be customized to your liking and a whisper enchantments can be added for stealth. My suggestion would be to take one of each and a few boxes of ammo and try them out. I know you don't use long guns, but the Winchester 1886 in 45-70 works well on broom patrol, and you're going to need a High Wall for bigger game. Neville is your heavy weapons guy on your team but if you can handle the bigger guns than having a backup is good." Harry said pulling three long guns off the rack.

"Just because I don't normally use a rifle doesn't mean I can't." Valos said with a smirk.

"Good, when we're not out there, and we have down time I want you practicing in here. Ammo is almost free. We collect the spent brass and the lead from the range and we reload it. So shoot as much as you want to. Now you're going to need a potions kit. In this pouch is healing tonics and mana potion. That's another thing we need to do some research about. Until we do, I'd skip the mana potion. You have blades covered, later on when you have your set list of items you like to use you'll set up two more bags. You'll leave one in your office and one in your house. In case you don't have your bag on you and you need to go fast…" Harry said only to trail off as Neville came flying through the office door with Billy hot on his heels.

"We got a call from Reno, huge pack of spiders were spotted near the city. They have a nest in the mountains. The Reno marshal is holding back ten wagon trains in the city waiting to head to San Francisco. They can't leave the city until we take out the spiders." Neville said.

"Why didn't you head two out?" Harry asked.

"I figured this would be a good test for the two new guys to tackle. Pack of spiders in a nest. It could be 4 it could be 10 big fucking spiders and a queen. The tunnel could be a cave, or a mineshaft. The bounty on the spiders is $1,500. $500 each for the two rookies if they take lead." Neville said with a smirk.

"Let's let Valos find his loadout first and they both need to get comfortable with a set of modern guns before we send them into a cave full of death. Call Reno back and tell them we'll be out there in a few hours. You two head to the range and I'll bring you a set of mission guns. These weapons come from our universe, they are not to be seen by anyone but us, the brass is to be collected after a mission, and these weapons are not to be drawn in public unless you're about to die and help is not coming. Is that understood?" Harry asked in a tone of voice that brokered no arguments and promised the punishment of death to anyone breaking the rules. Both men nodded with Billy looking slightly fearful of Harry and Valos placing his closed right fist over his chest and bowing slightly.

For the next two hours both men blasted through thousands of rounds of ammo but in the end Harry was confident that both men had the right set up of B&S guns for their combat styles and they could handle the modern mission guns they were given which at this point was narrowed down to the Sig p226 X-Five for undercover cary in the shoulder rig, a Sig MPX in 9mm with an 8 inch barrel for close quarters work, and the HK417 in 7.62x51 with a 16 inch barrel and an acog scope. Harry checked Valos' guns before they left the office and the Assassin smirked as Harry asked him questions about gun grips and speed loaders.

"Relax Harry, I think I'm all set. Plus you don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself. I'm not some greenhorn." Valos said checking his two Model 1's on his gun belt and the two model 2's with the shorter 3 inch barrels in his shoulder rig.

"I know, but as a leader I have to make sure my troops are ready for anything." Harry said with a smirk.

"And I'm not angry. It's nice to have someone looking out for me. It's nice to be a part of a group again. Now let's go kills some spiders and make some coin." Valos said taking two of the stiletto daggers with the hot knife enchantment off the desk and adding them to his belt along with the knife roll pouch full of small razor sharp five inch throwing knives, and a razor sharp black steel Kopis short sword with a bone handle.

The group portkeyed to the Reno marshal's office and after a brief talk with and marshal about the location of the nest they expanded their two wolf pack fighters and after hitting a button on the magical hud the cockpit expanded revealing a jump seat behind the pilot's chair just like the mustang. They loaded up and headed west into the mountains along the road San Fransisco. It took only a few minutes to find the cave thanks to the three big spiders dragging a mountain troll carcass inside. They landed a close by and the new guys pulled out their Hk417 rifles while Harry and Neville both had their highwall rifles in hand and their Model 4 rifles loaded and slung over their shoulders.

Valos took point leading Billy and Neville into the cave with Harry scanning the cave behind them as they went. They approached a cavern and Valos held up his hand. He vanished into the shadows and and returned a minute later. He lead them back a few dozen feet and waved them closer.

"Eight big fucking spiders and a huge pregnant spider the size of a house." Valos said looking at Harry.

"Don't look at me, it's your show. You tell me, what do you want to do? How do you want to play this?" Harry asked.

"The cavern is about a hundred foot around and eighty foot tall. It's dark as hell, with loose rocks all over the place, and big spiders everywhere you look. If I wasn't in the shadows I would have been a snack. We need fire and explosives. Do we have any of that?" Valos asked looking at everyone.

"I can throw some fire cards but we're talking small fires. Not large scale. How about you guys?" Billy said playing with his cards.

"We have these." Harry said pulling two red stone grenades.

"What do they do?" Valos asked.

"Exposed and sends 100 buck shot balls out." Harry said.

"Kill range?" Billy asked looking at the cast iron ball.

"About a hundred feet." Harry said.

"How many do you got?" Valos asked.

"Ten, each." Harry said with a smirk. He liked the way they were working together.

"Okay. how do they work?" Valos asked.

"You pull the pin and it goes boom after five seconds." Harry said.

"Give me six of those." Valos said pulling a thin spool of string out of his pocket. He had Harry hod the five grenades and he threaded the thin string through all of the pin rings.

"How are you going to get those in there?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to shadow walk them in and teleport back here." Valos said taking the cluster of cast iron balls and vanishing. A few seconds later valos came out of the shadows next to them just as the grenades went off and the cavern shook.

"Now we cast in fire spells and clean up the still moving ones." Valos said with a smirk.

"Allow me?" Billy asked shuffling his deck and fanning out a seven card ace high straight flush of glowing red hearts.

"Be my guest." Valos said with a girn.

"Don't mind if I do." Billy said rushing to the mouth of the cave and flicking all seven cards into the cave. The explosion rocked the cavern again and Billy had to duck under his leather coat to dodge the backdraft fire ball.

"Small fires my ass." Valos said rushing over with his rifle out.

"These new cards are great!" Billy said following Valos into the cave with his rifle up.

Harry and Neville shared a head shaking smirk before walking into the room and surveying the damage. The first thing that hit them was the smell. It was like burnt hair, shit, and death. There were burnt bits of spider all over the floor. In the corner of the cave was the half burnt body of the queen. The spider was bigger than aragog was. It was way dead but the bell was still moving. Harry was about to say something when Billy came over and hit the belly with a burst of full auto from his rifle. He pulled his sword out and started hacking at the belly. He carved open the belly armor of the big spider and they all saw a sack full of dinner plate sized spiders crawling around inside.

"Fire in the hole!" Billy called out making the rest of the group back up. Billy pulled out three cards a 7,6, and a 5 of hearts. The cards glowed red and Billy flicked them into the sack. The cards exploded and set the sack on fire. They heard the chittering screeches of hundreds of little spiders as they burned.

"I think you got them Billy, good job. Now we need some more light in here to see if it's worth looking around or if we should just set off a few more explosives and level this cave." Valos said.

"Good call." Harry said casting a light ball spell and hovering it over the top of the cave casting light to every corner of the cave. That's when they saw all the chunks of bone and black globs of spider shit all over the place.

"My god." Billy said looking around the room at the carnage.

"I think we should just cut our loses and bring down this cave." Valos said looked a bit green as well.

"You both did a good job. We'll summon all the spent brass and any coins. You two scout back down the cave and see if there are any metal veins in the cave." Harry said patting each man on the back as they walked out of the cave.

"This place is a fucking shit show." Neville said.

"Just how bad is this? $1,500 is a lot of coin. How many people and wagon trains did they get before we were called?" Harry asked looking at the amount of human bones in the cave.

"Two wagon trains, 37 people. Mostly men and boys headed to a mining camp in San Francisco. The damaged carts and all the goods they had with them were recovered by the next group that was heading this way. They found the mess and headed back to town. The mining company is paying for the bounty." Neville said.

"Fuck, we really need to set up beacon poles on the roads leading out in all directions. At least in our own state. Shit like this is avoidable." Harry said pulling out a sack and summoning any coins, guns, knives, valuables, and stent brass.

"Hey bosses! We found some silver and iron veins in the tunnel this way." Billy called out.

"We're coming." Harry said heading back.

It took a few explosive charms from Harry and Neville to bring down the cave but by noon they were back in Reno delivering the good news. Harry traded a bag of gold $50 coins with the Head Marshal for a bag with all the personal belongings found in the cave. It was a grim trade but Harry hoped that the return of a few lost trinkets to the family of the fallen would bring some comfort.


	14. Chapter 14

After completing their task in Reno they headed back to the office by portkey and Harry handed Billy and Valos ten $50 gold coins each from the bag when they walked through the door to their Office. Each man took the coins and headed into the range room to clean and restock their gear without being told to do so. Harry headed into his office and took a seat in his chair. His brother followed him into the room and dropped into the big chair in front of the desk he put there. This was how their old office was set up in the DoM. Harry's office had a big chair for him to recline in and his office had a couch Harry loved to lay on.

"They did good out there." Neville said leaning back in the chair.

"I expected them to. Billy is a survivor with untapped potential and Valos is a master assassin looking for a new brotherhood. Speaking of, we still need to get him that amulet your wife was working on. We also have to set up a beacon network in all directions from this town. On top of that we have a few calls that we still have to take care of. When it rains, it pours." Harry said he said pouring two small glasses of scotch and handing one to his brother.

"Then stop with the rain dancing brother. You're the one that turned a few copied guns into a firearms company. You turned a mine full of lizard men into a mining company. You turned routine airship maintenance the small wolfpack fighters. I'm still waiting for you to say we're selling those by the way. And now you came up with the idea of forming a magical task force to handle the crazy shit that happens out west where all the crazy magical shit happens. It's all your fault we barely have time to reload, get some chow, and take a shit between fights." Neville said.

"Look at you sitting there on your high horse judging me when it's you that's been egging me on the whole time. This is why we couldn't be partners back when we were Unspeakables. We egg each other on until we're doing stupid shit! You know, like fighting the whole world's problems by ourselves." Harry said laughing.

"Well it's too late to turn back now. We just need to hire two more men and lighten this workload up a bit." Neville said.

"We will, for now we'll work as a team and when these two are up to speed then I'll go out and recruit when we have time. For now let's gear up, get some lunch and then we'll head back out. We have to look into the reports of a big building that just showed up on the top of a mountain in Colorado. If it's someone's home then we have to warn them it not safe to set up shop up there because the dragon's are drawn to the mountains. There has got to be blue or red stone in them. We should look into that one day. On the other hand, If the building came from a rift then someone is playing with rift magic again." Harry said sorting out his gear.

"A building just showed up on a mountain top?" Neville asked.

"According to captain Gordon Connors, an airship captian that makes the run from Salt Lake to Denver everyday, the mountain was untouched yesterday morning and last night when he was making the return trip the mountain top was leveled off and there was a big building built on top of the mountain." Harry said grabbing a sheet of paper off his desk and reading off the report.

"They leveled a mountain top and built a building?" Neville asked.

"That's what he said. He also said it was dark and cloud coverage was very dense so it was hard to make out details. That's why he reported it to Walter and Walter passed it on to me because his boys would have a hard time making it up the mountain." Harry said.

"The fucking weird magic of this world. I'll never get used to it." Neville said shaking his head as the door to their department opened.

Hermione and Abby walked into the main office area with a few bags and a clay pot of something. Both women were dressed in more casual jeans with corset style leather vests over heavy cotton shirts and leather jackets. It was their working around town in the cold look perfected by Hermione and copied by every woman in their ever growing study group. Today they wore their shorter jackets and less heavy shirts. It was nicer today than it had been in the last three months with the sun out and temperatures in the 40's. but it was still early March after all and there was a good layer of snow on the ground in town. It was also a look that caught Valos's eye.

"Can I help you Ladies?" He asked. The accent and the charming smile made the question more suggestive than innocent. Harry smirked but had to suppress a laugh when Billy came practically running out of the gun cage when he heard the word Ladies.

"Yes, what can we do for you fine ladies?" Billy asked taking off his new fancy black gambler's style hat.

"Well aren't you two just the cutest looking southern gentleman a lady did ever see." Abby said in an over the top southern bell accent.

"They are in deed Abby. Are you two big strong looking men Marshals?" Hermione asked mocking Abby's voice.

"We are Ma'am, was there something you needed help with?" Valos asked.

"Why yes there was, you can kindly fetch our husbands. Marshal's Harry Steel, and Neville Blackwell. We have their lunch for them." Abby said with a smirk as the look of hope in the two men's eyes died and oddly enough the look was replaced with respect and mild shock.

"Right away Ma'am." Valos said turning around only to find Harry and Neville already coming out of Harry's office. "Sirs, your wives are here." Valos said giving Harry a look of 'good job boss'. Billy was less subtle.

"Damn Boss you're better half is much better than you. What kind of magic is at play here? And is it legal?" Billy asked making everyone laugh.

"She's got a thing for older, grizzled, mean guys." Harry said dropping a kiss on Abby's cheek as he took the clay pot from her hands and set it on the wood conference table in the middle of the office. "What do we got?" He asked looking in the pot.

"Jon Philip said it was a beef stew with potatoes and carrots made with caramelized onions and a red wine base. I also have fresh rolls and beers." She said setting the bag she had on the table.

"And I have your new glamour." Hermione said setting her bags down and pulling a small wood box out of her leather bag. She opened the box and showed him the small gold hoop earring.

"That's the glamour?" Valos asked looking shocked.

"Sure, I know it's a bit big but instead of a glamour that gives you another person's face this lets you keep your face. This earring changes the shape of your ears, and the color of your skin, hair, and eyes. It also vanishes like the undercover shoulder rig. This was just a proof of concept. The next iteration will be smaller." Hermione said talking fast. It was clear she was excited about her concept but also disappointed with the roughness of her work because of the quick turnaround.

"No! This is so much better than anything I could have hoped for. This is the glamour I paid $8,000 for." Valos said unbuttoning the top three buttons on his shirt and vest to pull out a big five inch silver cross that was covered in glowing white runes on a thick leather cord.

As soon as he took it off his face shifted from generic white guy with brown hair and blue eyes to his dark bluish-purple skin, shock white hair, and light blue almost glowing white eyes. His face thinned out and became more angular with a sharp jaw line. His hair was short and pushed back showing off his long pointy ears. When the glamour lifted Billy jumped back a bit but the rest of the group didn't really react the way he expected at all. They all stared at him with confused looks.

"Nev, why does he remind me of someone?" Harry asked.

"I think he's hot." Abby said before she realized she said it out loud and blushed.

"He looks like an actor. But the blue skin is throwing me off. Mia put on the new glamour so I can figure it out." Neville said closing one eye and then the other one trying to change his perspective.

"Yeah, here. We need to pierce your ear. This is going to hurt for a few seconds." Hermione said forcing the tall thin man into a chair and turning his head to the side to get to his ear.

"I look like someone?" Valos asked.

"You do. But like I said the skin tone is making it hard to put my finger on it." Harry said making some bowls and spooning out stew.

"Brace yourself." Hermione said jabbing his earlobe with a glowing hot needle.

"AWWW!" He called out making everyone laugh. Hermione deftly pulled out the pin, inserted the gold earring and healed his ear with a wave of her finger.

"There all done. Now I just have to activate the enchantment." She muttered tapping the ring with her wand and Valos changed again. His ears shrank. His skin became a sun kissed golden brown, his eye and hair became light brown and as soon as the change hit Harry snapped his fingers and pointed at his face.

"Young ass Clint Eastwood!" Harry practically yelled.

"Your Right!" Neville said.

"Really young, like Fist Full of Dollars young. But it's uncanny." Abby agreed.

"This Clint Eastwood is a good looking man?" Valos asked with a smirk.

"Sexy as hell." Abby said before catching herself again and blushing.

"Later we'll show you a few movies. For now check it out." Hermione said making a mirror and handing it to him.

"Let's eat. We got a report of a building just showing up on the top of a mountain. We have to portkey to Denver and fly over the Rocky mountain range until we see this place. That's another thing we have to add to the list. We have to get you two up in a wolf pack fighter and have you train to fly your own ship. We also have to get you both a broom, and a we still have to Show Valos where he'll be staying in town." Harry said passing out bowls of stew, fresh baked rolls, and cold beers.

"We also came to drop off two more crates of grenades, three crates of High wall ammo, and a crate of 500 anti-dragon explosive rounds." Abby said taking a bowl from Harry.

"Your team of enchanters are working miracles. You guys do so much great work and I hate to do this to you be we need more ward beacons. We need to put them on every road leading out of our town. We lost two wagon trains out of Reno and that should not have happened." Harry said.

"Okay." Hermione said.

"Really? It's not going to put extra strain on your work?" Harry asked.

"Not really, how many do you need?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not sure, a lot. Say an extra 250 just to be safe we're just going west and north. The the south we'll put beacon every 5 miles apart.

"When do you need them by?" Abby asked.

"Is saying ASAP too much?" Harry asked.

"No, what do you think Abby? End of next week?" Hermione asked.

"Easy. By next Wednesday more like. We have the ward stones for it. We just have to make the poles. We'll add it to the order Salt Lake put in. It's not too much extra work." Abby said.

"Good, the faster we can protect the roads throughout our state the better." Harry said.

After lunch the boys geared up and portkeyed to Denver. The Marshal's office was a hive of activity. Harry stopped one of the Marshals running around.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"We got reports of missing people. Snatched right off the streets last night or earlier this morning. We got blood but no bodies for the most part." The marshal said.

"Shit. I think we better talk to Walter before we head off." Neville said.

"I agree. Thank you for the heads up." Harry said thanking the kid he stopped before leading the group to Walter's office. He knocked.

"Yeah!?" Walter called out.

"It's Harry Steel. Can i…" Was as far as he got before the door was ripped open and Harry was ushered into the office with Neville. Billy and Valos were going to follow but Walter had a cagey look in his eyes so Harry backed them off and nodded to a bench off to the side.

"How did you know about the kidnappings?" Walter asked.

"We didn't. We came to investigate the building that popped up on the top of a mountain remember?" Harry said with a calming smile.

"Right! I totally forgot about that. We've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off since this morning." Walter said scratching his head.

"Why don't you start from the beginning and tell us what we can do to help?" Harry said.

"It all started at about four o'clock this morning. We got a report of a man being attacked and dragged into an alley by a big dog. Before we could go investigate that we got four more reports of night watchmen being attacked and dragged away. That's when we sounded the emergency recall. By five I had most of my boys out in the streets looking at crime scenes and searching for bodies. All of the attacks happened on the west side of town but we had deputies out patrolling the streets. As we were doing that two big dog creatures attacked a man walking home from a bar not too far from the first attack sight. My boys heard the screams but by the time they got there the man was almost dead and the body was being dragged into an alley. My boys opened fire at the dog beasts and got a few good hit but the things just ran off. They stood to drop a healing potion in into the man but with no magic in him at all, and the neck wound he he suffered he died in a few minutes. That was at around seven this morning. Since then we have every cop and marshal out there looking for these things. The attacks have stopped but reports are still coming in of men not coming home last night, we're up to 29 as of right now. With our dead friend in the cold room that's 30 dead or missing that we know of. If we didn't find anything in the next couple of hours I was going to call you guys." Walter said.

"Well we're here now. Do you have the dead body?" Harry asked.

"We have it in the cold storage room in the basement. We took off the head but aside from that the body is untouched." Walter said.

"Neville call your wife and have her come over to look the body over. I want anything she can give us. I also want to talk to the two marshals that shot at the things that did this." Harry said standing up.

"That would be the brothers Ford. Chris and Tommy. I split them up and sent them off to lead patrols of deputies around the city. I'll send runners and have them report back to the office." Walter said.

"Don't bother. We'll go find them and talk to them. When Hermione comes have someone show her to the body and let her work. We'll be back in a bit." Harry said walking out of the office. He saw Neville on the phone. He waved Billy and Valos over.

"What's going on boss?" Billy asked.

"We got a pack of possibly magical beasts on the loose killing people and dragging their bodies away." Harry said as Neville hug up and joined them.

"Mia and Abby are getting their bags ready and they'll be here in a few minutes." Neville said.

"Good. For now I want to take a look at the body and then we're going to head out and find these two marshals that got a few shots off at these things. We're splitting up Neville, you and Billy go talk to Chris Ford. Valos and I will head off to find his brother Tommy. Have him walk you through the encounter and see if he'll let you view the memory." Harry said as they walked down into a cellar where the cold storage was.

Harry found the body and lifted the white sheet covering the corpse. The body had odd shaped bite marks on the arms and legs. Oddly enough the cut on the neck that caused him to bleed out looked different. Like it was caused by a jagged blade or broken glass bottle he amended seeing a sliver of brown glas in the neck wound. They were consistent with the glass in the wounds on his right hand. Harry leaned over and sniffed the mouth of the severed head and smelled cheap whiskey under the smell of death. Things were coming together in his head.

"This guy was walking back home from the bar with a bottle of whiskey. He must have been drinking from the bottle when he was attacked. He fell, the bottle broke, and he must have landed neck first into the broken glass. This man died from an accident that was tangentially related to him being bitten. If he had fallen differently he'd still be alive. These bite wounds are not lethal. In fact look at where he was bitten, arms and legs, but look at the wounds." Harry said.

"Away from any main arteries." Neville agreed.

"This was kidnapping. Not dinner." Harry said leading them out the front door into the courtyard of the barracks like set of buildings that made up the Marshal's station.

"Right Harry. Let's go." Neville said pulling out two horses and expanding them both. Harry followed his lead and soon the two teams were headed in two different directions in search of answers with varying degrees of success.

Chris Ford saw almost nothing. Between the shadows of the early morning, running around the block, the adrenaline spike, the muzzle flashes and loud bangs from his gun he caught just a glimpse of what looked like a pair of big black dogs. Tommy was just as bad but his memories were more helpful. It was in Tommy Ford's mind that Harry caught his first look at the creatures that killed or kidnapped thirty men that morning. What at first looked like a dog was in fact a two and a half foot tall six foot long very fat black rat with glowing red eyes. The memory also helped Harry track were the huge rats ran off to. Harry made a call to his brother and ten minutes later they were all standing in an alley looking at a storm drain grate. It was one of those big square hole in the sidewalk curb style grates but this one was big.

"The sewer?" Billy asked not looking happy.

"It's not a sewer. It's a storm drain. All the plumbing in the city is magical. There is no sewage. Shit gets flushed into a vanishing rune and disappears. This drainage system is for rain and snow. You ever notice how the streets dip down on an angle headed into the alleys? This is where the water collects. So, which one of you is going in first?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Don't you want to lead by example Boss?" Billy asked returning the smirk.

"And take away all the fun and adventure you'll miss out on by me going first? Besides, I'm your boss. Now, get in the fucking hole." Harry said.

"You don't pay me enough to go into a dark storm drain full of huge killer rats. Why don't you lead from the front." Billy said.

"Both of you are pussies." Neville said kicking off the grate with his boot and pulling out his X-Five and a flashlight . He crouched down, flashed the light around to make sure it was clear, and hopped into the hole. "It's clear Ladies! We got a left and a right tunnel." Neville called back making the other three smirk.

"Valos, you're next, then the cowardly kid. I'll bring up the rear. Head lamps and black rifles boys." Harry said putting on the headlamp from his bag at the same time Valos pulled his gun and dropped into the hole. Billy copied Harry and followed Valos. Harry was the last one in. He flipped the lid back into place.

The tunnels were bigger than Harry first expected and a lot drier too. The tunnels were eight foot tall and six foot wide. They were made of brick, stone, and cement. There was a small flowing puddle in the center of the tunnel but the walls were dry. There were small shafts of light coming from the drain grates that gave the tunnel a very low light. Harry held up his hand and sent a pulse of magic down the tunnels before turning left and leading the group down the tunnels leading out of the center of the city to the west.

Harry lead them through the tunnels for a few minutes. Ever few hundred feet he would let off a pulse of magic. As they went they found all sorts of things in the drainage tunnels. From papers and ripped up clothes to coins and jewelry to knives and guns it seemed like the city's trash got washed off the streets and ended up down here. It also looked like drains were a good place to ditch evidence of crimes. Billy who was mastering the summoning and shrinking spells was in charge of collecting everything they found. So far he was up to $138 in change, a few nice gold pieces of jewelry, a dozen knives, and four revolvers. Not that he had too much time to look at each thing he found. Harry kept up a good pace leading them through the maze of tunnels using his magical pulse to track the rats. As the group got more west they found a few piles of clothing. Harry shared a confused look with Neville before leading the group on. He did his magical pulse one last time as they neared the western edge of the city before he stopped the group with a hand. He crept forwards around a tunnel before he backed up to the group.

"Three for them are dragging what looks like a dead body. Neville, Valos, we're going to roll around the corner and take them out with a few quick precision shots. Try not to hit the body on the floor." Harry said leading the group to the junction.

They rounded the corner and saw the huge rats. As a group they brought their rifles up and they all fired at about the same time. Each of them let off three shots that all found their targets dropping the huge rats like tipped cows. Harry ran up with his gun at the ready and popped the two that were still moving and screeching in the head to finish them off before he went to check on the body they were dragging. Harry checked the man's pulse and found a strong but irregular one.

"We need to get this guy back to the…" Harry stopped talking when the rats started moving again. He was about to shoot them again when their bodies shifted and convulsed before they changed into three naked men.

"What the fuck is going on!" Billy asked summing up the group's thoughts pretty well.

"Some kind of Were-curse." Neville said what Harry was thinking.

"We have to get these dead bodies back to the Marshal's station and we have to keep track of this guy's transformation. We also have to finish tracking these things. If its a were-curse then their may be a cure for it. If there is then these people that got taken today can be turned back. We also need to put out a city wide alert." Harry said.

"We should also stop killing these things." Neville said.

"Good call. We'll track and capture from here out. Hopefully these guys were not locals. Billy do you have the stunning spell down?" Harry asked.

"I do, but not confidently." Billy said looking disappointed.

"That's okay. I'm happy you know your limits. It's better to say you don't know something then to act the part and get killed in a firefight. Take this portkey rope, tie it to everyone's hands, and take these dead bodies and our turning friend back to the marshal's office for my sister to look after. Tell her what went on down here." Harry said turning a ten foot rope from his bag into a portkey and handing it to the younger man.

"Yes boss." Billy said as he took the rope and nodded. Harry patted the boy on his shoulder with a smirk before leading the group down the tunnel.

Around the next few turns Harry and Neville ditched their rifles into their bags and pulled out Ruger Mark III 22/45 paclite pistols with small red dot sights. They checked the mags and pulled a few spares out of the bag and put them in their coats. Harry pulled a second gun from his bag and handed it to Valos along with two spare mags.

"This is a gun that fires tranq darts. The safety is off so all you have to do is put the red dot on the target and pull the trigger. There are ten darts per mag. You have three mags. Make every shot count." Harry said leading the group down the tunnel.

"If you had traq guns why did you ask Billy about the stunning spell?" Valos asked.

"Because one of you had to take the bodies back. That was always going to be Billy. You're a better shot. But to save the boy's ego a bigger hit I sent him away for safety reasons instead of his lack of skill. We don't need flashy magic right now, we need to find this group of rats and take as many out as we can with tranq darts. Besides, If we run into a swarm we will be using the stunning spell. That was not a lie." Harry said using his magic to track.

"I see." Valos said nodding.

Harry lead them to a choke point in the tunnels. They were at the edge of the urban city streets that lead into the small bit of farmland within the city walls. From this point the tunnels became 10 inch clay pipes that took rain water collected in the city center out to the crops growing on the farm land. To the west was where the apple tree farms. The maintenance gate at the end of the tunnel before the pipe reduction was ripped apart so Harry followed it out and tracked muddy rat paw prints to a standing grove of apple and nut trees. The trees were barren at this point but the collection and storage houses were full and sure enough that's where Harry found the big nest of rats. They had set up camp in one of the smaller storage barns.

They snuck into the barn with Harry and Neville under invisibility cloaks, and Valos hiding in the shadows. They took up positions around the big nest of rats and started shooting. They got most of the rats before alerting the pile but at a certain point they got all the ones they could get before they had to move the knocked out rats to get to the ones under them. Harry lifted the 38 knocked out rats off the pile and Neville and Valos took out the rest. They lined up the rats and using a big rope they tied one of the rat's feet to the rope before Harry turned it into a paired portkey using a rock.

He popped back to Eureka to grab a crate of 25 pound steel bricks before heading back to the Denver marshal's office. He turned all 250 steel bricks into a big 40 foot six sided cage with thick bars and very small gaps between the bars in the courtyard of the Marshal's barracks. He tossed the rock into the cage and activated the portkey deposition all 63 huge rats into the big cage. He vanished the rope and left them to sleep off the sleeping draught. By this point most of the marshal's and Billy were outside looking at the huge rats in the cage.

"These are the things that killed or kidnapped 30 men this morning?" Walter asked.

"Well half of them are. The other half are the missing people. This is some kind of wererat curse. I've never seen anything like it." Harry said.

"Why are you keeping them in a cage? Why not just kill them?" Walter asked.

"My sister is looking at a man that has yet to change. She might be able to figure this out. She might be able to turn them back into humans again. For now we'll keep them caged up and alive." Harry said.

"You think you can fix this?" Walter asked looking shocked.

"Maybe? It's worth keeping them alive until we can find out. For now I need to head back out to the apple farm and figure out how they got here. They made it inside the new wards my sister just put up. That should not have been possible." Harry said finding Billy in the crowd and waving him over.

"We're heading back out." Harry said looking up at the setting sun. It was early March but it was half past five and cloudy. They had maybe an hour of sunlight left before it was too dark to see.

"Let's get a move on Boss. We're losing daylight and these big rats ain't gonna track themselves." Billy said with a good natured smile adjusting his long king snake coat around him better and pulling up the collar to cover his neck.

"Don't tell Valos, but I think you're my favorite new recruit. Let's go." Harry said holding out a rock. The two men vanished and reappeared next to the barn. They found Neville and Valos a few hundred yards away looking at the ground.

"What did you find?!" Harry called out as they walked over.

"Tracks! They lead to the outer wall. They used the line of trees to find the shed full of food. I say we pop to the wall and figure out how they got in while we still have the light on our side." Valos said.

"Good call. Horses?" Billy asked.

"Wolf pack fighters. I have a feeling we're going to be heading up a mountain soon. The tracks lead to the west. To the mountains. What's the only thing that changed in the last 24 hours aside from Wererats we've never seen before?" Harry asked as he pulled out his fighter.

"The building that showed up on the top of the mountain." Neville said pulling out his fighter.

"Right." Harry said hopping into his fighter with Valos.

They flew low and slow to get to the wall and in a few minutes they found the hole in the ground and the tunnel that went down 30 foot under the wall to get under the wards. They came in single file and they kept the dirt moving down the line until it was piled up next to the hole outside the wall. Harry tossed a couple of grenades down the hole to collapse the tunnel and filled in the holes with the loose dirt from the other side of the wall. Once the tunnel was covered over they hopped back into the fighters and headed up into the mountains.

The building they were looking for was easy to spot. Once you got above the cliffs of the rockies the Art Deco style building was right there. As they flew closer they could see that it wasn't just a building, it was a complex of three buildings, a promenade between the buildings, and a parking lot. They made a low fly over the campus and almost instantly Harry could see something was off. It was like the campus was carved into a divot in the mountains. He made a few more passes and it hit him as he came around the front of the campus. If you put a pin in the middle of the center building and drew a circle around the campus that's what was sitting on top of the mountain. It was like a bubble enveloped the campus and popped it to the top of the mountain. But it looked like it left everything else back where it came from. A corner of the left building was missing and the parking lot was cut off cutting two of the cars parked in the lot right in half.

Harry dropped down and landed in the quarter of the parking lot that came with the campus and hopped out with his gun in hand. Neville landed next to him and followed his lead. Harry walked up to one of the 14 whole cars in the lot and looked it over. It looked like a 34 Cadillac roadster, it even had a Cadillac badge, but it looked more curvy, swoopy, and streamline. Infact all the cars did. Harry clocked a 39 Oldsmobile coupe that looked like a chopped hot rod but he could tell from the paint and the stance of the car that it was factory stock. It was like Art Deco was invented in the 1920 and stuck around until the 1940's. It was like all the cars made after the 135m Delahye just copied the style and stuck with it.

But as cool as the new style choices were the thing that stuck out the most was that 6 of the 14 cars didn't have wheels. In the wheel wells were some kind of electro magnates. He dropped down on the ground to get a better look under the car and saw the car was floating about three inches off the ground. He pushed on the car to see if it would move but it was rock solid. Harry was sure his sister would take one look at it and know what it was and how it worked but Harry was sure it was magic. He stood up getting ready to head into the building.

"I call dibs on the Caddy drophead roadster." Neville said making Harry look at his brother and roll his eyes.

"Let see if their are any more rats or maybe even survivors before you start calling dibs on cars we can't drive here. Or have you forgotten there are no roads?" Harry said leading the group to the front doors of the main building that took its style cues from the Cincinnati Union Terminal building with it's half dome front face and fountain out front. Across the front entrance was brass letters declaring 'United States Army Technomancy Research Laboratory'. The front glass doors were shattered. Harry pulled the front door brass frame open to look inside the building was almost totally dark inside.

"Head lamps boys." Harry said pulling out his very bright headlamp and putting it on. He also pulled out a small but powerful tactical flashlight from his bag and turned it on. Almost as soon as he got some light going he could see the bodies on the floor. There were 13 dead guards in full US army WWII infantry and MP uniforms with bite and claw marks all over their bodies holding M1 Garands, M2 carbines, Tommy guns, and 1911s. Also on the floor were 9 naked men and a naked woman riddled with bullet holes.

"The rats attacked in a pack and took out the guards." Neville said picking up a M1 Garand off the floor and looking it over.

"Yes but they came from within the building. From down this hall deeper in the building." Valos said looking at the positions of the dead guards.

"True. Hey Harry, what are you thinking about the time line? 1930's? 1940's?" Neville asked pulling a 1911 out of a dead soldier's hip holster. It was a model 1911A1 with a C serial number code. That meant it was made after 1930 but that didn't help much. He racked the slide and caught the round that flew out. The bullet looked different then he was expecting. The case was brass, but the head was some kind of copper or brass jacketed hollow point with a small ball bearing in the hollow point. Also on closer inspection the soldiers were wearing what looked like green dragon hide leather vests under their field jackets.

"Good question. Check his wallet for date marked bills and his ID if you want but I'm sure we'll find documents and calendars in offices with the date." Harry said.

"Good call." Neville said.

"Hey boss, should we take off their heads so they don't get up and start walking around?" Valos asked.

"If you want to but they haven't gotten up so far and they've been dead for at least 36 hours. I'm starting to think the curse only affects people from this world, sorry Billy." Harry said headed deeper into the building.

"Tell me about it. I'm always wearing armor from now on." Billy said with a smirk as they walked by the front desk at the back of the lobby. Neville checked the date book on the desk.

"March 5th, 1944." Neville said.

"But not our 1944. The cars were floating, and I don't remember a branch of the US military dedicated to Technomancy. That was all handled by their CIA and it was kept secret." Harry said.

"A lot of things don't add up. They have hollow points with ball bearings in the tip to help with spreading. That's like that critical defense ammo the magical CIA boys use." Neville said.

"Another rift into another world. I wonder how many worlds are out there?" Harry said leading them down the hall to the offices of the main building and what had to be the laboratory. It was a big room that took up half the main building's floor space in the center of the building with a ring of offices around it. There were four doors leading into the big laboratory and all of them were heavy plate steel vault style doors with big locks. On top of that they were glowing with wards and runes.

"It's going to take an hour to break just one of these doors down." Harry said scanning the wards to get a feel for them. They were nothing he knew and being a minor curse breaker that was saying something.

"Why not go through the wall?" Neville asked vanishing the marble wall only to hit plate steel covered in runes under it. "Fuck." He said.

"That sums it up. Call the girls, have them come over and start working on the door. They would be the only ones to understand anything we find in there anyways. I don't know much about technomancy, just what Mia taught us." Harry said.

"Yeah, I'll tell them to fly over. They'll wanna see this place anyways." Neville said pulling out his phone and walking back to the lobby.

"Valos you stay with Neville, Billy you're with me. I want to start clearing out the complex room by room to see if there are any survivors or more rats." Harry said pulling out his X-Five and walking down the hall to the first office.

Harry opened the door and Billy rushed in with his gun up. They found an empty office. They repeated this all the way around the building. In total there were 22 office and a small reference library/breakroom in the back of the building. They found a total of 36 dead soldiers, six janitors, a librarian, and 16 men and 4 women dressed in suits, and dresses with white lab coats over the top. They also found 37 dead naked men and women full of bullet holes. Harry turned them all into coins and pocketed them as he went. Billy summoned all the guns and shrank them as they went. At about the halfway point after seeing two women with their throats ripped out Billy ducked into one of the bathrooms and threw up. Harry followed him in and stood by with a sad look on his face.

"So much death." He said trying to flush the toilet but nothing happened. "Great, the plumbing is broken." Billy said.

"It runs on water pressure, all of the utilities were cut when this building came through the rift. Here." Harry said vanishing the puke and handing Billy his canteen of cold water.

"Thanks. I guess you must be rethinking your picking me to be on this team today? I can't use almost any of the spells you use, i'm not as good a shot as Valos, and I have a weak stomach." Billy asked leaning against the sink as he rinsed out his mouth.

"Not once. You're a good kid Billy. You got a lot of untapped potential and a good head on your shoulders. You just have to get used to the horrors of the job. That's it. On the other hand, do you regret taking the job offer?" Harry asked.

"No, we helped protect hundreds of people trapped in Reno by the big ass spiders and we captured the wererats to see if we can cure them. Even if we can't they're not in the tunnels kidnapping and turning or killing folks anymore." Billy said summoning his X-Five off the floor by the toilet where he dropped it.

"You're coming along a lot faster then I first thought. Our magic is a lot harder then the shit they teach here. It takes years to learn it and you've been pushing yourself to be wandless instead of using a wand as a crutch to learn faster. In a month you'll be a very deadly man. For now stick with us and we'll get you over the hump of death and horror." Harry said patting the kid on his back as he headed out the door.

Before Billy could get out of the bathroom Harry turned the two women into coins and pocketed them. When Billy came out he saw the two women were gone and he nodded at Harry with a thankful look in his eyes. They continued around building to the lobby and saw all the bodies were moved they came around and saw Hermione and Abby working on the door. Harry was about to call out his approach when Abby spun around and brought her 1911 up. When she saw it was them she relaxed.

"Warn a girl next time before you creep up on her in a dark and scary building." Abby said.

"Sorry, we just came around the building. We finished a scan of the offices and the cafeteria. 49 dead soldiers, 20 researchers, 7 staff, 47 dead wererats as of now. How's the wards coming?" Harry asked.

"It's coming. These are very well constructed wards that are powered by some kind of gemstone system that is really hard to crack. Thankfully they use latian runes so I can read it, I just have to figure out how to crack it. Neville is checking out the west building why don't you check the other one and by time you're back we should have these wards down." Hermione said.

"Right. Abby keep an eye out. Just because everything is dead in this place doesn't mean it can't get back up. I don't think it can happen but be on the look out anyways." Harry said leading Billy out the front door and across to the east building.

The door was smashed in just like the main doors. Harry pushed in and found more dead soldiers and naked people in the small lobby of this building, but unlike the main building lobby the guards were facing the front doors. Harry collected the dead bodies and Billy collected the guns and spent brass. The building housed a dinner style mess hall as well as a barracks to house 75 men. They found 6 cooks and a waitress dead in the mess hall. Harry looked at Billy to see how he was doing but at this point he looked numb. The Barracks were empty but full of personal effects. Harry found an armory full of guns, and ammo. He shrank it all and took it. By the time they walked out of the building they saw Neville and Valos walking into the front doors of the main building.

"What did you guys find?" Harry asked.

"Barracks, a few offices, an armory, and a training room. You?" Neville asked.

"A mess hall, a barracks, and an armory. How many dead?" Harry said.

"At this point, too many to keep track of. We coined them and kept moving. We'll sort it out when we're all done." Neville said.

"We do know a few things though. It looks like the soldiers stayed on property and the staff commuted to the lab from a living quarters off base. Probably Denver." Harry said.

"Looks that way. Did you clear out the armory?" Neville asked.

"Yeah. We don't want that level of weaponry to fall into the wrong hands." Harry said leading the group into the main building.

"We're through six of the seven wards. Then we can vanish the door." Hermione said.

"Good. I want to finish with the clean up, drop a ward stone set, and get some dinner." Harry said checking his watch.

"Dinner sounds good." Neville said watching his wife work.

It took just five more minutes for Hermione to bring down the wards on the door. Harry stacked up on the door with the group behind him. Hermione vanished the door and the team went in. The room was 100x200 foot and about 35 foot tall with a few small open air offices and desks tucked into the corners of the room. The middle of the room was taken up by a big 60 foot domed structure made of very thick glass and steel. Inside the room was some kind of ring like machine made of steel and glowing runes connected by cables to a bank of old crt computers that looked like they were powered by magic. As they spread out through the room they each took a corner to search. They found dozens of bodies on the floor. It was a mix of researchers, soldiers, and naked people. It was a bloodbath in this room. It was clear to see this was the epicenter of where the shit hit the fan. Harry bent over to pick up a clipboard off the ground when he heard an odd thunder crack like sound followed by a woman's scream and a grown.

"Call out! What's going on?" Harry called out rushing over to the center of the room the sound came from.

He found Valos on the floor. His coat and vest were smoking. In the domed room huddled under a table was a woman in her late twenties clutching an odd shaped handgun in her hands and a dead man in his late thirties to her chest. She was dressed in a dark grey pinstriped skirt suit, a white silk blouse, a wide red tie, and black high heeled maryjane style shoes. Her light brown hair was pinned back off her face and fell down her back in loose rings. She had pale white skin, soft brown eyes, arched eyebrows, a thin nose, and very delicate features. She wore very little makeup except for the dark red lipstick and the mascara that was running down her cheeks.

"Ma'am, we are not here to hurt you. We are US Marshals." Harry said pushing Valos who was waking up off to the side so his sister could take a look at him.

"Alpha Protocol Zeta 3! Call out the command codes!" She yelled back.

"I'm going to cast a light spell so you can see me. I'm human, I'm a US Marshal. I'll show you my star." Harry said casting a low powered light ball spell into the room.

"ALPHA PROTOCOL Zeta 3! CALL OUT THE COMMAND CODES RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" She screamed in a desperate tone of voice Harry knew very well. He looked into the room and got a better look at her eyes. They were red rimmed, raw, and beyond freaked out. He also saw the dried blood on the back of her hair and her shirt collar from a head wound. He also got a good look at the gun. It was small, stubby, and round.

"Ma'am, I don't know what you're talking about! I'm a US Marshal. This is my star." Harry said tossing his star to the ground close to her. "Please Ma'am you look hurt. Let me come into the room and help you. I will leave all of my guns out here." Harry said.

"LIES! CALL OUT THE COMMAND CODES!" She screamed but as she did she let off a shot at the door. The gun glowed for a split second before a beam of red light about three inches thick shot out the tip and hit the door frame blasting a fist sized hole in the steel.

Harry rolled around the corner and stunned her. He advanced on her and took the raygun from her hand and put it in his coat before he picked up the slim woman and brought her out of the room. He set her next to Valos. And pulled the id badge off her lab coat.

"Dr. Elizabeth Westen. She has a head wound and she's in shock. I think she witnessed all of this. She was clutching a dead researcher to her chest and it looks like she's been sitting in the dark wide awake for the last 20 plus hours." Harry said.

"I need to get her back to the Cube. I need to do a full scan on her and we need to monitor her for the next few days to see if she has any permanent brain damage." Hermione said.

"I have a feeling until we get the full story from her we're not going to get any answers to anything. Let's finish the clean up, drop a ward stone perimeter around this place and lock it down until we can go over this place with a fine tooth comb." Harry said.

It took a half hour to finish the clean up, fix the doors, shrink the cars in the lot, and set up a double layer ward stone perimeter. Hermione and Abby took Dr. Westen back to the cube. Neville took Valos back to Eureka to rest and heal from the blast he took to the chest. Harry took Billy back to Denver to check on the rat cage and report to Walter. By the time they made it back to Eureka it was past dinner time and Harry was tired. He walked into the cube and took off his hat, he was about to take off his coat when he heard screaming from down the hall. He rushed to the guest bedroom and saw Hermione and Abby trying to calm Dr. Westen down who was dressed in one of Abby's white silk night gowns. She was standing in the corner of the room holding a wand.

"Where are my clothes!? Where am i!? What is going on!?" She yelled.

"SIT YOUR ASS DOWN NOW!" Harry yelled walking into the room. He must have infused his magic into his voice because all three women sat on their asses where the were. "Not you two. Now Dr. Westen, like I said before. I am a US Marshal. You are in a town called Eureka Nevada. You traveled to a different dimension. In fact your whole campus did. You brought with you wererats. They attacked people in Denver. We were called in to track them down and capture them. We have them in a big cage protected by wards. We got a report from an airship captian that spotted your campus at the top of a mountain. We were dispatched to investigate. We found a fucking bloodbath. By the last count we have. 78 dead soldiers, 52 dead researchers, 13 staff members, and 73 dead wererats. That's on the low end. We also found you. Now you're hurt, dehydrated, and delirious from your injuries. You will lay down and get some rest so you can heal up and then you can tell us what the fuck is going on." Harry said in a tone of voice that brokered no arguments and yet she still pushed back.

"Alpha Protocol states…" She started to say before Harry cut her off.

"I don't give two flying fucks what alpha protocol is! We have two dead, and 30 people turned into wererats in the city of Denver! As far as I'm concerned you asshats played with dimensional magic and you unleashed this hell on yourselves. I should charge you with the death's of the two men that died in Denver today. Your ass should be in a cell. You're not because I don't think you were in charge of this bubmblefuck of a situation that happened. I think you're a victim just like all the poor bastards that died over the last two days. Now get in that fucking bed and get some rest and if I think you're trying to escape I'll knock you out and toss you in a fucking cell. Be glad we found you and not the marshals in Denver. We too are dimensional travelers. We came here by accident just like you. If they knew you were a dimensional traveler they would have rushed you through a trial and put you in front of a firing squad. Dimensional travel magic fucked this world all up. Anyone caught practicing it get slapped by the long arm of the law. I'm not playing with you any more. One more sound out of you and i'll kill you myself." Harry asked coldly before walking out of the room but he stayed close by incase he was needed.

"I don't know what to say." Dr. Westen said looking close to tears.

"You have to excuse my brother, he had to clean up a lot of dead bodies today. Seeing that much death reminds him of the war. You work for the army, you understand war wounds." Hermione said in a soft calming tone of voice that put the doctor at ease.

"Yes. My David gets like that… David." She said softly as tears formed in her eyes.

"Was that the man you were clutching to your chest?" Abby asked helping Hermione get the Doctor into bed.

"Yes." She said softly as they tucked her in.

Hermione gave her a healing potion mixed with a sleeping draught. She was asleep in seconds. Hermione cast a monitoring charm on the sleeping woman before they walked out of the room taking the doctor's wand with her. They found the boys in the dining room eating big plates of dragon steak, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, and fresh buttery rolls. There were two plates on the table waiting for them.

"How is she?" Harry asked looking guilty. Both women knew he felt bad about yelling at her.

"She'll be physically fine in morning. Mentally? That's anyone's guess. She could wake up calm and ready to talk in the morning." Hermione said.

"But she'll be able to answer question tomorrow right?" Harry asked.

"Yes. But I'd go easy on her Harry. The man she was clutching to her chest was her boyfriend or husband. I'm not sure but I do know they were lovers. She spent 20 plus hours clutching his dead body to her chest waiting for help to arrive." Hermione said.

"I won't push. But we need answers. I'd also like one of you to talk to Billy at some point tomorrow. Ask him about his first day and see if he'll talk to you. He seen a lot of death today and I think it fucked with him." Harry said.

"We'll add it to the list." Abby said with a comical over the top sigh.

"We all work to hard. One day soon we'll take a trip to the west coast and take a break. We just need to get the team up and running. Even if it's just Billy and Valos. Those two are a lot tougher then I thought they would be." Harry said with some pride in his voice.

After dinner Harry sat in his office and cataloged all the guns they got from the dead soldiers. Harry unloaded all the guns, hit them with a cleaning charm, and stacked them in wood crates he made. 10 M1 garands to a crate, 20 M2 carbines and 20 tommy guns to a crate, and 50 1911a1's to a crate. When he was done boxing up all the guns he shrank all the crates and put them in a trunk marked WWII guns. He did the same with the ammo. He checked on their guest one last time before he went to bed.


	15. Chapter 15

AN: A cold ripped through my gaming group and with the holiday weekends it's been a few weeks since we've had a game which means i had no plot for the Wild west story. Also due to the cold and the back up at work I've had no time to write anything. i have been getting caught up on the plot i have left from the last game we played and i should have a new chapter up maybe Monday next week. As for the other stories i have open ended it's all up in the air until i'm done with this Wild West game and the story that goes with it. Maybe 6-10 more chapters? it all depends on if the group still wants to play. After that i'll finish the investigator story, 2-6 more chapters. Then I'll close out the way of the Jedi story. 6-10 chapters. at that point i'm done writing for a while. i'm not posting anything new until i have it complete before posting the first chapter which may be never depending how much of a pain in the ass it is to close off those two half baked stories that i regret posting in the first place. Investigator Steel is a sprawling monster and proof that a story shouldn't be written by a comity. and Way of the Jedi is way too popular for how terrible the plot is. of all the stories i have ever posted i regret that one the most. it was half an idea that got a huge following out of nowhere and i hate it. Sorry to disappoint fans of that story. as of right now i have no other open story threads.

Dr. Elizabeth Westen woke up in a soft bed, wearing a soft silk nightgown, and covered in a soft fluffy comforter. She rolled over and took a deep breath and inhaled the smell of frying bacon and fresh coffee. Then she opened her eyes and the sight of the white room hit her and a panic set in. Where was she? How did she get here? Why did her head hurt? Then a memory hit her. She was working in the lab. They had opened a portal to Zeta 13. They were waiting for a pick up. That's when the rats came…. Elizabeth closed her eyes as the horrible images hit her only to open them again when someone knocked on the door.

"Yes?" She called out looking around desperately for her wand.

"Breakfast is ready, I also have another healing tonic for your head. The bathroom is the door to your left. When you're done put on the robe and slippers hanging on the bathroom door and come out." a grumpy male voice called out.

The voice triggered another memory of the night before and the words he said. Dementianel travel is band. She was a prisoner until she could answer questions about the crimes her and the team were responsible for. If the answers were not good enough she could be hanged for her crimes.

She thought about trying to escape. She thought about running. But how the hell could she escape? She didn't have her wand, she didn't even have her clothes. She looked at the window in the room and she saw it wasn't a window at all. It was a magical portrait with a view of sun drenched cliffs overlooking an ocean. She slipped out of bed into the cold of the room and hurriedly put on the big white fluffy robe and slippers on the only door in the room which lead to a white marble bathroom. That room had a different portrait window that showed a sun kissed field of green grass. She was stuck. But she also knew she could be in a cell. That's when she remembered something else he said last night. He was a dimensional traveler too. He knew what she was going through and he was giving her the benefit of the doubt. Knowing that the man was trying to not treat her like a criminal she decided to act in kind. She used the toilet, she washed her face, and brushed her hair out with the wood handled brush on the vanity.

She tied up the robe and headed out the door into a nicely appointed white hallway with works of art on the walls and intricate oriental rugs covering the hardwood floors. She found the dining room easy enough, it was just two doors over. The table was set for two with platters stacked high with blueberry pancakes, bacon, melon wedges, sausage patties and a french press coffee pot. The man came in from the kitchen and set two plates on the table piled high with soft scrambled eggs and waffles.

"I wasn't sure what you liked. So I made waffles and pancakes. Bacon and sausages. I also have coffee, orange juice, or I can make you a pot of tea." Harry said coming around the table and holding out a chair at the head of the table for her to sit.

"This all looks good and I feel ravenously hungry." She said pushing her hair out of her face. Now that she was more calm and relaxed her mid-atlantic accent came out harder. Harry suppressed a smile. She sounded a little like Katherine Hepburn.

"That would be the healing potion we gave you for your injuries. Speaking of I have a second dose for you to finish healing your head wound. You had a nasty concussion and some brain swelling. If you didn't have magic you would have died for sure." Harry said sitting next to her at the table and handing her a test tube with red glowing potion before he picked up the plate with the eggs and pushed some off onto his plate.

She downed the tonic and shook her head trying to get her bearings back. He passed her the plate with eggs and she scooped some onto her plate. He repeated this with every plate. He then passed her a second plate for her pancakes or waffles.

"Would you like waffles or pancakes?" Harry asked.

"Pancakes please." She said. Harry passed her the platter with the pancakes. When they had full plates Harry poured her a cup of coffee.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for my behavior last night. You're very valid questions and demands were the last straws that broke the camel's back for me and I yelled at you. I would just like to say that is not how I normally behave." Harry said.

"I understand. The shorter brunet said seeing death brings back memories of the war for you." She said trying to see how much she could get out of him. Because while she knew she needed to answer a lot of questions she also knew she needed information as well. Harry grinned a little at her request. He knew the game they were playing as well.

"Hermione, my sister. And yes, it does. But I have a feeling working straight through for two months without taking a proper break is catching up with me. Now, I have some questions for you, in fact I have a very long list of questions but the first thing I wanted to get out in the open is that you're not under arrest here. You should stay in the house for a day or two until my sister gives you a clean bill of health. But at any point you are free to go. However I would like to warn you that this world is dangerous. Very dangerous. Huge man eating spiders, 26 foot long 5 foot wide venomous snakes, six foot tall wolves and coyotes, and that's not even mentioning the dragons. On top of that, unattended dead bodies have a tendency to get up and start walking around." Harry said.

"Oh my. Then that means this is not Zeta 3 then. It explains a lot now that I think about it." Elizabeth said scratching her head as she thought about her situation.

"Zeta 3?" Harry asked.

"What? Oh, yes. I think I should start from the beginning. On our earth. Earth prim we invented a technomantic device called the Gateway. It allows us to make portal doorways to other worlds and cross over whenever we wanted to. This was a new technology. It was invented by PhD. David Palmer… oh god David." She said softly as tears came to her eyes.

"Sorry for your loss Ma'am." Harry said in a consoling tone as he handed her a soft white handkerchief.

"You know, I knew one day David's work would get him killed. Probable me too for that matter. But I never thought it would claim the lives of so many others. David was a genius, but he was cold and always in his head. The work came first and no matter how far we got he was always pushing for more. I always pushed for caution, and I was able to make him pace himself. But when the Army got involved I knew they would egg him on. All day Wednesday I was dreading the call sheet. We had pushed for too many new worlds. We had six teams out in the field. Six new worlds was too many. Now there are six people stranded on different worlds. Seven if I count myself." She said through a bitter smile.

"Um, Dr. Westen…" Harry said only to be cut off.

"Beth, call me Beth. I know I got off track again. Sorry about that. I'm usually not this scatter brained. In fact I graduated high school at the age of 12, New York University pre-med at 16, and I was tenth in my class at Harvard Medical school and one of the youngest graduates ever at 19. But back to the point of all this. I met David seven years ago. I was fresh out of medical school and was having trouble getting a job at a hospital. Who would have thought making history as a woman would have rubbed the men in charge of my field the wrong way? I couldn't get hired if I was the cure for Dragon Pox." She said laughing.

"Dragon Pox? So you are versed in magical medicine?" Harry asked.

"It was my field of study. Is Magical medicine not taught at university here?" She asked looking confused.

"Where I'm from it's not and out that door is 1886. They barely teach regular medicine at university. Also magic is a new thing for the normal people of this world. Like my own world magic was hidden away. It's still hidden away in 2016 where I came from. Here it's been out in the open for about 35 years thanks to a huge rip that was opened by the native shaman to summon a magical retribution on the white man. As you can imagine, that didn't work out too well for anyone and it took 12 years to close the breaches. To this day they can sometime pop open on their own to let things through. It's a real pain. But let's get back to your story." Harry said.

"Right, I was looking for work and there was a magical medicine position open at a research lab back at Harvard. That was where I met David. He was perfecting his idea for transdimensional rips. To tell you the truth I worked on the project for seven years and I still couldn't tell you how it works. I was in charge of making sure everyone that worked on the project was healthy, and later when David got the portal working I made sure the away teams didn't carry any patagones with them when they crossed over and I made sure they didn't bring anything back. I can still remember the first time David got the portal to work." She said with a nostalgic smile.

"It was a tuesday in mid July 1940. I had been working on the project for about three years at that point and we had gotten close a few times but we never broke through. We kept moving the lab. David was sure it had to do with the location of the portal. We had settled into a little barn on a farm in upstate New York the week before and we finally had the Gateway up and running. Something clicked that night. It was electric, you could feel it in the air. David activated the Gateway. It charged up and bang, we were looking through a portal doorway at an open field. We tossed a brick through the portal that had a recording charm and closed the portal. The next day we opened the portal and summoned the brick. We recorded nothing. Just a normal day out in the middle of nowhere. That's when we knew we had to have away teams. We started by leaving a dog in a cage on the other side for 24 hours. When we opened the door and he was fine we sent the first team. Two soldiers with magical spy training were sent in undercover. They had invisibility cloaks, brooms, and scanning equipment. We opened the portal two days later and they brought back news of the other world. It was a Foxtrot class world. Although we didn't know that at the time. The naming system came later after we had seen about a dozen different worlds." She said.

"What does Foxtrot class mean?" Harry asked.

"It means in that world it was 1823. The phonetic call signs came with the Army funding and protection. At the time of the catastrophe we had visited over a hundred different worlds. Every world is like our own, but different. None of them shared a date though. In each world it was a different year. A different age. David theorized that every year a new world was born and therefore it was one year younger then it's next closest brother. But it was ten years younger than the world created ten years before that. And our world was not the oldest. We've seen worlds from 2080, to 1000 BC and everything inbetween. We made a list. Starting with Alpha we named any world that was 2050 and above and we worked our way down the list to Q class which is worlds with date codes in the 1250-1299 range. Anything under that was classed Zeta, basically pre-tech worlds. Zeta class worlds were mapped out. Resources were found, sections of the world were warded off, and the resources were extracted. Iron, gold, gemstones, oil, magical plants, hell magical beasts. If it could be used by the US government we sent a battalion of troops and a team of workers to set up camps and the resources were taken. It's how we were able to put dragon hide vests on every soldier in the US Army. Zeta 9 is a world overrun by dragons. We sent a few magically warded tanks through and in a week we had enough dead dragons to put a vest on every man and enough meat to feed the Army for a whole year. It's also how we found hover car tech, it's how we were able to power the industrial machine. And now that we're fighting Hitler's robots it's even more important." She said.

"Hitler had robots on your world?" Harry asked shocked.

"It's how he took over europe so fast. September 9, 1940 a robot army, made in a secret underground base, marched on France and took the world by surprise. By December 1941 he had all of France, half of Poland, and half of Italy. Until the US Army landed on the shores of England last year Hitler controlled all of Europe, the west half of the USSR, and the top half of Africa. If it wasn't for the help we got from the empire of Japan we would have been unable to do anything. They lent us a few aircraft carriers so we could at least airdrop supplies to our allies as we built ourselves back up. You have to realize we dismantled the Armed services by cutting funding to the Army in favor of building up our infrastructure. It took two years to build new ships, tanks, and planes. Then there was all the new tech we needed to combat the Nazi robots. Armor piercing ammo, magical body armor for our troops, hover aircraft, hover tanks, mech suits…"

"Mech Suits?" Harry asked.

"12 foot tall big robots with men inside driving them around, armed with Browning 50 caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, and rocket pods. You don't have them on your world?" She asked.

"No, in fact on our world Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor. The US fought the war on two fronts, europe and the pacific. Hitler didn't have robots. He had devoted soldiers and advanced tactics. He also had death camps for Jews and anyone he deemed below him and his alpha race. The UK never fell to Hitler and the Nazis" Harry said.

"That's incredible. It must have been an easier fight than." Beth said.

"Not really, the war ended in 1945. A lot of people died on all sides of the war. The cost of the fighting and the rebuilding put the world in debt. The US ended up using nuclear weapons on Japan to stop that war. It was a dark time for the US." Harry said.

"You speak about America like an outsider. You're not American?" She asked looking confused.

"British. So is my brother Neville and my sister Hermione. My wife Abby is American. We were British magical spies before we came here. I hunted and killed dark wizards trying to overthrow the government or start a world war. We worked with governments all over the world to stop threats. We were like guns for hire. If you think you have a magical spy in your government, then you called us, and we come in to hunt them down. That is until we came to the Nevada desert looking for Abby. We found her in a mine full of glowing redstone. We also found an indian opening portals to this world. We ended up here. That was back in October about five months ago." Harry said.

"Wow, and you came from a world far in the future. How did you all cope with the change? The culture shock of being more than a hundred years in the past had to have been staggering." She said looking shocked.

"It was at first, but soon we just found our groove and stuck with it. We took jobs as Marshals so we can keep helping people. We opened a firearms company and we're selling the people of this Earth our earth's old guns. It's why we confiscated all the guns from the crime scene. We're not looking to release the 1911 for another few years yet. This world isn't ready for semi auto handguns. Speaking of confiscated guns, what can you tell me about this bad boy?" Harry said setting the silver and red raygun on the table.

"Unfortunately not much, we got that the same day we got overrun by the rats. We didn't get a chance to look at it yet. When the rats started coming through I grabbed it off a table and started shooting until the rats attacked David. He landed on top of me and I hit my head." She said looking ready to break again. Harry pocketed the raygun and put his hand on top of her's in a calming fashion.

"Tell me about that day. You said you had a bad feeling about what you were doing all day." Harry said trying to keep her on track .

"It was the amount of worlds we were exploring. Six teams out in the field was too many. I told David that. I told him six teams meant we had less time to set up protocols and scans. We didn't even have the full detachment of soldiers on the base that day. They were on leave getting ready to rotate out and the new company of soldiers that came in were not prepared for what could have come through the portal door. This was not the first time we had something come through. We usually have twenty soldiers at the ready when we open the portal door." She said.

"And that day you didn't have the manpower?" Harry asked.

"We did, but they were taking the job too lightly. It had been years since something came through. We have mining and drilling camps on 8 different Zeta class worlds. We open portals to those worlds everyday from four different facilities like ours around the country. Our Big Springs Texas facility practically has an always open doorway to Zeta 5. It's old hat for most the soldiers that get portal doorway guard assignments but our facility is different. We're not a resource hub with a big Gateway where trucks full of oil or iron ore come through everyday. We're the place that finds and catalogs the new worlds. We open 2-3 portals a day. We send two man research teams through and we collect them two days later. These worlds are uncharted. That's why we have soldiers at the ready to shoot anything that comes through that's not our two man team. Even if it's just the two man team we still run a full scan on them at gunpoint in case they brought back something. It's not a chance to get some R&R away from the front lines." Beth said looking pissed off. She took a few calming breaths as Harry poured a few ounces of vodka from the nearby side table into her glass of orange juice.

"Thank you." She said taking the glass and draining half of it in one go.

"I understand. After action reports suck, but I need to understand what happened so we can maybe find a way to get you home." Harry said.

"I understand. I just get so angry thinking about the fact that this could have all been avoided. I can see it in my head. I can picture ever part of that day and I can spot at least five instances where this could have all been avoided. Starting with David pusing to explore six new worlds. Starting at 09:00 hours we opened the doorway to Omega 9. Our A Team came through and sat for a battery of tests. Once they were declared fine they submitted their report and dropped off their box of collected items before they were released from the base to head back to their house in town to recover from their two day mission. At 10:45 we opened the gateway to the next world on our call sheet. Alpha 7. Team B came through and we went through the process all over again. They dropped off their reports and sealed box of collected items. We did the scans on them and we let them go sleep off their two days of fun in the year 2083. That's where the raygun came from. Normally when you take futuristic energy weapons through the Gateway the transition fries the circuits rendering the weapon useless. But as you saw, the weapon worked on our world as well as it did here. We were sure it was magical." She said smiling at the excitement they felt finding a weapon like that.

"We had one more Portal entry on the call sheet before we could break for lunch thanks to there being six teams in the field instead of the normal three. So at 12:15 we opened the next portal door which was Gamma 8, a world where it was 1767. Team C came through and we went through the process. Again they dropped off their reports and sealed box of collected items. They went through the battery of tests which took longer than expected because the team walked through the muddy streets of Boston and they had traces of the smallpox virus on their boots. When they came through the portal the bio hazard alarms went off. We had to quarantine the lab and run a full bioscan. After we ran a full battery of tests we let them head home. At this point it was 15:20. We should have taken a break for food. We should have relieved our group of soldiers who at this point were standing on their feet all day waiting for something to happen. We should have done a lot of things but David wanted to stick to the schedule." She said sounding pissed off again. She took a big drink from her glass and sighed as the booze hit her belly and took some of the edge off.

"So at 15:30 we opened the portal to Zeta 13. But Delta Team was not there waiting for us. We were on time thanks to David pushing us to keep going and the team was late. This I think was the straw that broke the elephant's back. Here we were, in the lab for six and a half hours straight without food or a break and the team was late. The soldiers got restless. The staff started yelling at eachother. We were at each other's throats. That's when the swarm of huge rats stormed the portal door. The soldiers scrambled to get their guns up and start shooting but it was too late. In less than three seconds 20 rats were in the room biting and clawing at anything that moved. The soldiers fell in the first few seconds. They attacked the researchers in the room next. We didn't have guns, we didn't have anything to protect us. I grabbed the raygun on the table next to me and started shooting. One of the rats lunged at David and attacked him pushing us both down. I hit my head on the table as I fell and I blacked out for a second." She said sounding haunted.

Harry poured her another drink and pushed it to her with a knowing look in his eyes. She picked up the glass and downed most of it in three big gulps before she pulled the glass away and started coughing and choking.

"Slow down." Harry said patting her on the back.

"I'm fine."She gasped out before she coughed one more time and settled back in her chair.

"You okay to go on?" Harry asked.

"Yes. I have to get this all off my chest. Like I said I blacked out and I came to on the ground under David. At that point dozens and dozens of rats came through the portal door. And rushed out of the room once they thought all of us were dead. I got up and hit the lockdown button. The doors to the lab slammed shut, the alarms sounded, the Gateway shut down for a second before it kicked back on and started powering up the emergency quarantine Alpha protocols. In five seconds the Gateway powered up to over max, I thought the portal was going to overload and explode. But a second later the portal opened up and then in a flash it expanded out and then the lights went out." She said.

"Where was the portal supposed to take you?" Harry asked.

"Zeta 3. You see on Zeta 3 the Army has a secret training base where Denver is supposed to be. Zeta 3 is a mostly uninhabited world. The Army uses the base to test experimental aircraft, weapons, and armor. It's a huge base with about 5,000 men. If something ever went wrong like it did that day it's our job to hit the lock down button. It locks down the base and teleports the whole thing to the top of the mountain right next to the base. The area is warded off and there is a scout patrol that sits up there waiting for something like this to happen. Within five minutes of hitting that button 2,000 soldiers should have rushed into the base and took care of any threat. When I was waiting in the dark I kept counting the time in my head. Five minutes passed, ten minutes, a half hour, an hour, at a certain point I slipped into a semi conscious state where I was in the dark lab, but I was also in my head. I came to when I heard someone working on the door. I expected US Army soldiers to come walking through the door as soon as it opened. That's when you guys came in. I don't even know what I yelled all I know is that I was frantic and delirious at that point. You stunned me and the next thing I remember was your sister and wife helping me dress and casting healing spells at me. Even those memories are blurry." She said looking lost in thought.

"Any idea how you ended up here? Have you ever been here before?" Harry asked.

"No, we've never opened a portal here. And I have no idea where here is. On top of that only a handful of technomancers in the world know how the portal device works. So I'm stuck here." She said with a sad smirk.

"So there is no hope to get you back to your world?" Harry asked.

"Not an ice cube's chance in hell. In fact now that I think about it, we stranded three research teams on different worlds. I almost feel worse for them. I'd have to look at the sheet to confirm it but I think we left them on two foxtrot class worlds and an Eco class world. I hope they figured out they're stranded and they should head to an alternate portal location." She said coming to the realization that six people were in a worse off situation then she was.

"Eco is 1850 to 1899 and Foxtrot is 1800 to 1849 right?" Harry asked to make sure he did the math right in his head.

"You did the math right. I used to have that look on my face all the time when we first started the class system. Not that I have to worry about that anymore. What the hell am I going to do? I'm trapped in a dangerous version of 1886." She said rubbing her face as she finished her drink.

"Well, as dangerous as it might be, the towns and cities are under heavy wards and they're quite safe. Plus it's not like you're going to be broke. We're rich as hell. We'll give you a nice nest egg and you can always stay here as long as you want. We'll give you access to the portkey network so you can move about freely. We have guns and a range you can practice at. Get comfortable wearing a gun because you'll need it sooner or later. You can always make a fortune by inventing the cars we saw in the parking lot. The ones that hover. There are no roads really, but if you made a hover car?" Harry said.

"It's a thought, of course I'd have to know how the damn things work, which I don't by the way. It's why I don't have one. I'm a pump gas and tires kind of girl." She said laughing.

"But you're very smart. I'm sure you could figure it out." Harry said.

"I'm a doctor not a engineer. That's why I have no idea how the Gateway works. If it's not organic then I don't know a damn thing about it. I can't tell you the difference between a powercell and a power converter, but if you showed me a room full of sick people I can diagnose and treat them all in an hour." She said patting herself down. "You wouldn't happen to have a Lucky Strike would you?" She asked.

"I don't, I have Marburl Reds, and I have these. Would you like to try one? I was a five cigarettes a day smoker until I found these little guys, now burn through about ten of these a day. They are nice and smooth with a sweet taste and a gentle hit." Harry said pulling out his gold case and showing her the small cigars he smoked.

"I'll try one. At this point I just need to scratch the itch." She said taking one and putting it in the corner of her mouth as Harry light it. She took a deep pull and coughed for a second. "Smooth." She wheezed out.

"Well if you want to smoke cigarettes you're going to have to roll your own." Harry said.

"It sounds like I'm going to have to do a lot of things like that. 1886 is a long way from 1944." She said looking deep in thought.

"It's not so bad. And hey if you want to go the hermit route for a while you can always just stay in here for a few months. We have a big TV and a media drive with thousands of hours of movies and TV shows. All of it is stuff you've never seen before. Stuff from our world. It's also hooked up to a stereo system with a bunch of music. We pooled all of our media together when we first got here. I can almost guarantee you'll find something you like and something that reminds you of home. Plus we have to go over everything in the lab, I'm sure we'll find some records in the building." Harry said with a smile that died on his face. As soon as he said the words lab her face went dark.

"Yeah, I suppose we do have to collect all the dead bodies and we can't just leave the building there for people to find." She said softly as she puffed on the cigar.

"We collected the bodies last night. We were going to deal with that today." Harry said.

"How were you going to deal with them?" She asked.

"Mass funeral pyre. They burn the dead here on this world because they can get back up. We also have to clean out the offices and things." Harry said.

"Do you mind if I keep David's ashes?" She asked playing with the small gold and diamond ring on her finger. At this point she was numb.

"Not at all, in fact…" Harry said trailing off.

"In fact what?" She asked.

"I think I have a better way to honor your dead friends. Come with me." Harry said getting up from the table and walking into his study.

Beth followed him into the room. Harry picked up the small leather bag off his desk and spilled out the contents on the desktop. She saw a bunch of coins in a few different colors and sizes. Harry waved his hand over the coins and a gold coin flew into his hand. He waved at an empty spot on the floor of his office and conjured a tarp. He he set the coin on the tarp and dropped the transfiguration. David was laying on the floor covered in blood.

"Oh God!" She said as her knees buckled and she almost fell onto the dead body of her fiance. Harry helped her up.

"I can turn his body into a gemstone for you. That way you'll always have him with you." Harry said holding the crying woman.

"You can do that?" She asked looking up at him with shocked eyes.

"Yes. First we need to strip his body." Harry said pulling out his wand and waving it over the body. It lifted up in the air. With another wave a pile of clothes landed on the tarp neatly folded next to a gold tie pin, wallet, watch, and pair of glasses.

"If you would like to say a few words, now is the time." Harry said.

Beth stepped up to the floating body and placed her hand on David's head. She said a few whispered words as she ran her fingers through his hair. She stepped back and nodded to Harry with tear stained cheeks and red rimmed eyes. Harry waved his wand one more time and the body turned into a red blob before it shifted again and turned into a two karat deep gray-blue square cut gemstone. Harry waved his wand to dissipate the smell in the room before it hit them too much. He grabbed a small gold bar from his desk and cut off a small piece. He waved at the gold hunk and the blue gem and turned it into a pendent on a thin gold chain and handed it to her.

"There you go. Now you can keep David with you always." He said with a sad smile which she returned as she put the small necklace on.

"Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me." She said looking at the back of the pendent at the inscription that read PhD. David Palmer.

"That went surprisingly better than I expected. That spell is really becoming second nature to me." Harry said flexing his neck.

"I hope that didn't take too much out of you?" She said.

"No. Not too bad. It was about as tough as turning a big pile of loose blue stone into a big pile of blue stone blocks. I think I can cast that spell a few dozen more times before I even need to touch a mana potion. It's a spell I use a lot to do a bunch of things." Harry said.

"In that case, do you think you can turn the members of the research staff into gems too? If there is any chance of ever getting back home I would like to be able to at least hand their family's something like this and say their loved ones were taken care of." She said.

"I can, in fact let's do all of the bodies we took from the campus. Why don't you go back to your room and take a shower. I know Hermione cleaned and repaired your clothes for you. I'll go get a few bars of silver. We'll make little pendants with their names on the back." Harry said.

"Thank you Harry. This means a lot to me." She said hugging him again before she walked out of the room looking at the pendant around her neck.

For the next two hours Harry turned every body they found into a smoky blue-grey gem stone. For the researchers and staff he made silver pendants with the person's name on the back. They put the pendant along with any jewelry and personal effects taken off the bodies into a small box and put the small box into a little trunk. For the soldiers Harry added the gem to their dog tags and added their brass, bars, and patches from their uniforms to the little boxes before he put them in the trunk. For the dead wererats he turned them into loose gemstones, put them in a small bag and handed them to Beth .

"These probably won't fetch much but the thought of selling the people that killed your friends and loved ones as jewelry might give you some satisfaction. Revenge, even when it's petty and cheap still brings comfort to the soul and justice to the dead. Trust me. I know." Harry said with with a cold grin.

"I will find a jewelry store at some point and sell these with pleasure." She said matching his cold tone.

"Good. Now my family is all at your lab right now cleaning up the evidence of the existence of dimensional travel. Do you think you can stomach walking around the building with us and helping us make headway into figuring it all out?" Harry asked.

"I can do that." She said.

"Good. before we leave this house I want you to wear this and this." Harry said handing her a black dragon hide vest and a shoulder gun rig.

"Okay." She said pulling on the vest and Harry helped her put on the undercover rig.

"This is an X-Five. It's extremely easy to shoot. It's enchanted to have almost no recoil, it makes no sound, and it has a 190 round magazine. I have the safety off. If things go bad out there all you have to do is draw the gun and pull the trigger and it will fire. Also this is a portkey bracelet. If you get hurt it will take you back to the Marshal's station where almost everyone on staff knows how to administer a healing potion. Those three things should be on you at all times from now on. Also this." Harry said handing her wand back to her.

"I was wondering where that went." She said taking the foot long white oak wand and slipping it into a pocket on the inside of her suit jacket.

"I forgot to hand it back to you over breakfast. Now let's grab some coats and let's go." Harry said leading her to the coat rack by the front door. He handed her a spare dragon hide long coat. He pulled on his coat and hat and they portkeyed right to the laboratory campus.

The boys and Beth spent the rest of the day boxing up all the papers and personal effects from all the offices and barracks. They also found the vault with all the items and samples collected over the last week by the two man teams from other worlds. While they did that the girls looked at the Gateway. With no power running to the building to power the odd computers that ran the Gateway it was just a big ten foot wide ring of steel with glowing blue runes carved into it. When the boys and Beth were done clearing out the offices Beth was called into the lab.

"You have no idea how it works?" Hermione asked cutting straight to the point. After looking at the gateway for six hours and running every test and scan she could think of she was getting a little pissed off.

"Not really. I tried to understand the math behind it but I know quantum physicists on my world that don't understand how it works. To tell you the truth I don't think David could explain it. It worked that first time by chance. We moved to a location right outside Washington D.C. and it worked again but this time it opened a portal to a Charlie class world where it was 1987 and that world was built on technomancy. David spent a lot of time on that world. He came back with most of this computer stuff and a better understanding of technomancy. After that he rebuilt the Gateway using the computers he brought back and ever since then we've been able to open portals to different worlds not just Charlie 1 and Zeta 1. What I can tell you is what David told me one time when I asked him how it worked. He said the system kind of works like a tuner on a radio. If you can imagine there are countless worlds out there. Each one has it's own frequency like a radio station. David would spend hours and hours with PhD. Bailey scanning for frequencies." She said pointing at a big computer the size of a desk of to the side of the room.

"When they found a clear one they punched it into this computer." She said coming back into the domed room.

"When they had a list of worlds they would seal off the lab and power up the Gateway and it would open a portal door to each world. We would send a scouting team through in sealed environmental suits while the portal was still open. They would take air sample readings, soil samples, and they would plant a magical camera on a pole. The last thing they did was cast the tempus spell which always works no matter which world we opened a portal to. We would find out the date of the world and add it to the list with a classification letter and number. We checked the samples and made sure the world was safe before we sent a scouting team through the Gateway at a later date. We left them over there for two days before we opened the gateway and they came back with a report of the world." She said pointing to the locked file cabinets off to the side by a desk.

"Most worlds we never went back to. If we did we never interfered. We were scientists. We observed and documented. It was all added to the files. The Zeta class worlds were warded off, and resources were taken. In each case we tried to be as unobtrusive to the world as possible and in some cases we even helped the world by seeding fertile lands with fruit and nut trees, and root vegetables. For the natives to find." She said.

"Wow, this is going to take weeks to figure out." Hermione said scratching her head.

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you. I was the medical doctor on the team. Of all the people standing in this room when the rats attacked us I am the least qualified person to help you. In fact this was not even my main job on the base. I had a small office in town where I tended to the families and soldier living on the base in Denver. I only ever came up here when they found new worlds or if David didn't come home for a few days. I would come up here and drag him away from his work to take a break. It's why I didn't have my own office in the building." She said with an apologetic smile.

"That's okay, you've given us a lot to work off of." Hermione said looking at all the equipment with new eyes.

They did one last pass over the property to make sure they got everything. The last thing they did was seal up the lab and clean out the big walk in freezers and pantries in the mess hall. They dropped a third set of ward stones down, this set had a obscuring and muggle repelling charm attached to it before they portkeyed back to the office at five as the sun started to go down.

"Beth, why don't you spend some time in the range practicing using that gun I gave you. Also Valos can get you anything you want or need. Try out a bunch of different guns and see what you like and you can use." Harry said.

"Good thinking." She said seeing the indoor range.

"Right this way ma'am." Valos said leading her into the room.

"I'm going over to Sam's place. Kitty is waiting for me." Billy said heading out.

"We're having dinner at our place tonight. Dinner hits the table at seven." Harry said.

"We need to start going over all these files. We might be able to not only get Beth back to her world but we might be able to get back to our world as well." Hermione said grabbing the file box .

"Do you want to?" Neville asked.

"What?" Hermione asked looking at the box she had with all the files from the locked cabinets.

"Do you want to go back to our world?" Neville asked.

"I don't know?" She said finally seeing the look in his eyes.

"Well I don't want to go back. I hated my job. I hated the life we were leading. Always apart. Always life and death. The fate of the world type shit we dealt with everyday. The department used us and spit us out. I don't want to go back." Neville said looking uncomfortable about talking so much about his feelings.

"And I agree love. I know you love it here and so do I. But will we always want to stay here? Who knows what this world will be like in twenty years? Or fifty years? What if some nutter makes a nuclear bomb and blows up the world? I don't want to live in a toxic wasteland. It's always good to have options available. And who's to say there's not another world out there that's better than this one? What if I found a world where magic is free and out in the open, and it's post 1900? I know you like living in a western but what about a 1920's gangster film? Old cars, gangster suits, tommy guns, bootlegging, jazz. Or maybe we follow Beth back to her world? How would you like to punch Hitler in the nose? Air drop into Germany and fight the Jerries? Fly air support in your fighter plane as the G.I.'s storm a strong hold? We have gold and future tech all the way up to 2016. We can still invent things early no matter where we go. B&S firearms can still be a thing in 1950." She said with a smile.

"You're right love. I just don't want to go back and have to deal with all the baggage of our old lives. I have you, I have my brother. I now have Abby my sister-in-law. What else do I need?" Neville said summing things up in his simple but heartfelt way.

"Good point brother! I don't want to go back either." Harry said putting his arm around Abby who looked at Neville with a smile and nodded.

The whole group including Beth, Valos, Billy and his girlfriend, the former saloon girl, Kitty spent the rest of the day hanging out in the cube. They sat around the dining room table talking about things on their home world while Harry made his by now famous dragon potroast. They ate, they drank, and they watched A Fist Full of Dollars on the big screen tv in the living room before they all headed off to bed.

The next day Hermione, Abby, and Beth spent some time looking at the rats in the cage in denver. They spent the day studying the rats, taking samples, and trying cures and potions like Wolfsbane and a potion from Beth called Lycanal. None of it worked. After trying and failing for most of the day they took Beth to a reputable magical jeweler in Salt Lake named Fredrick Vanderbilt. Beth tried to trade in her 68 Lycan stones for cash. Frederick offered her $40 a stone which Beth was willing to accept. But Hermione chimed in when she saw the shop keeper stare at the stones.

"My brother Harry Steel made those stones with his Magic. They are magically neutral, take charms and enchantments better than most hard stones, and they are flawless. I'm also sure Harry can make you a batch in other shapes as well. How about this, we will license out our B&S logo for you to use when you sell these stones and you give my friend here a better price? Something she can make a real living off of." Hermione said.

"You would be willing to let us use your logo to advertise?" He asked with a girn.

"Yes, you can even say that Harry handcrafted each stone. Also these are a vary limited thing. Harry can only make so many of these things a year. These are a stockpile Harry made over the last three months. Figure maybe 25 stones a month 30 tops on a good month for now. Maybe one day he might be able to make more. This is all experimental like all of our inventions." Hermione said.

"Really?" He asked looking at the blue stones again.

"Think about how much you can get for a ring of protection or a pendent of resistance with one of these B&S Handcrafted stones?" Hermione asked with a smirk.

"$85 a stone." Fredrick said.

"Call it $100 a stone and we'll provide you with an official B&S stamp you can use to stamp the gold setting with our Logo. As well as a custom sign advertising the sale of of B&S Moonstones and we'll only sell to you." Hermione said holding out her hand.

"Deal." He said with a big grin. Hermione made the small punch stamp with the B&S logo as well as a window sign reading 'Now selling B&S Moonstone enchanted jewelry. Limited numbers, get your's today! As Fredrick counted out the gold $50 coins. They walked out of the shop with Beth clutching a small leather bag with $6,800.

"I can't believe you just did that." Beth said.

"Do what? Haggle? You have to if you want a good price. Everyone does it. It's expected." Hermione said with a shrug.

"No, promise him more stones. Won't Harry be angry he has to keep making stones?" Beth asked looking worried.

"Noooo! He'll be pissed off he didn't think to turn dead men into stones all this time. Do you have any idea how many dead bodies we've had to burn in the last few months? The lizard men alone! What a waste." Abby said slinging her arm around the shorter woman.

"So he won't be mad you made more work for him?" Beth asked.

"No, it's why I put a limit on the stones. If we run into a huge group of undead we can make more stones, if not we only need to deliver what, 25 stones a month? That's nothing. And I'm sure Harry will give you most if not all the money from the stones. It's not like we need it and you'll need some spending money. besides with Abby and I tied up in researching the Gateway to see if we can get you back home and the wererat problem we're going to need a doctor to step in and take our place. With some cinder blocks, wood, glass, and magic we can build you a nice big office with a few exam rooms. We can hire you a few magical nurses, and we can even set up satellite portkey offices in big cities to get you more patients. They can pay what they can and we'll provide you with a big store of all the normal potions we hand out in stores for free. It's not like you're going to need the money. You'll be making $2,500 a month off the stones." Hermione said talking out the idea as she was getting it.

"Yeah, I mean as much as I hope you do figure out the gateway, I'm probably going to be stuck here a while. I might as well make myself useful. Idle hands and what have you." Beth said nodding.

"Good, but for now, you're in a big city, you have a bag full of coins, and you stick out like a sore thumb in your 1940's garb. Let's go shopping!" Abby said with a big smile.

While the girls were looking at the rats and shopping the boys were flying over the Arizona desert south of Tuscon looking for the pack of Mexican Orange dragons that attacked the city. Had it not been for the B&S ward stones protecting the small city the dragons would have feasted on the two thousand plus residents of Tucson. As it was the pack of five dragons hit the wards, bounced off, and retreated back south. The Marshal's called the team in, they popped over two minutes after the attack and now they were tracking the pack of dragons headed for the Mexican border.

"You sure it's safe to be flying around up here in this wolf class fighters?" Billy asked looking around for the dragons in the sky.

"It's fine, we're warded against damage and were cloaked." Neville said.

"Contact! Up ahead. About twenty miles away!" Harry called out bringing his magical targeting system up and prepping for a strafing run.

"I see them." Neville said squinting to see the five big dots in the sky heading for the mexican border.

"I'm going to make a strafing run, follow me in and when I pull off take out the ones still in the air." Harry said banking right and high as he sped up.

He made his approach coming in on a high cross angle and when he got closer he lit the dragons up with his 20mm cannon. He managed to drop two of the five dragons in one go. Neville also got two on his pass a few seconds behind Harry. But at this point the biggest dragon in the lead of the pack caught on to the fact that something was killing them from the sky. He folding he wings in and dove for the ground before twisting and coming right for Harry's fighter. He huffed a big fireball at Harry's ship. The wards took all of the damage but the cloaking enchantment went down.

"You okay Harry?" Neville called out trying to keep up with the dragon on Harry's tail.

"Yeah. can you kill this thing already!?" Harry called back trying to avoid the dragon's fire.

Neville broke off high, rolled into a loop and strafed the big orange dragon across it's back with his 20mm cannons. But the dragon took the damage and kept flying, albeit in a injured, slow and awkward fashion. Neville repeated his attack and this time the dragon fell out of the sky and hit the ground with a heavy wet thud and a big dust cloud. The two fighters headed down and collected the five dead dragons and returned to Tucson to tell the local Marshal's the good news. They made it back to the office at noon only to run into Tedy the front desk cop who was waving a hand full of papers.

"Stone giants in Rock Springs Wyoming. Also the wanted sheets just came in over the wire, there's a gang of magical outlaws that robbed a bank in Colorado Springs. They killed two Marshals that tried to stop them. That just happened. They flew out of town on brooms. The marshal's think they might be responsible for a missing airship, and a few other bank robberies all over the area. We also got a call from Twin Falls Idaho. They got a big pack of wolves in the nearby forest that attacked a group of lumberjacks this morning." Teddy said.

"Right, busy morning. Let's head out to Colorado Springs and track this group of Marshal killing bandits first as a group. Then we'll split up. Than Neville can take Valos with you to Rock springs and go take out these stone giants. Billy you're with me. We'll take the out this pack of wolves. Grab your gear and let's head out." Harry said putting his long coat back on.

The portkey ride to Colorado Springs was longer then Billy was used to and he felt a bit queasy when they landed. They were met by a group of three solemn faced marshals in the marshal's office.

"Thank's for coming out. We'd love nothing more then to track these guys down ourselves but after what they did to Hank and Dwight this morning we know we're no match for them." One of the men said coming over to shake their hands. "I'm the new acting Head Marshal Jack Carson."

"We understand and we're happy we can help you with this. We want to get these guys just as bad as you do. The Marshal service is a brotherhood. When one of use goes down it's up to all of us to avenge them. We're also sorry for your loss boys. Can you tell me what happened this morning so we can get a better idea of what went down?" Harry asked.

"Head Marshal Hank Brown and Dwight Scott were on patrol of the town this morning when a woman ran up to them on the street and said she saw a group of five men walk into the bank with bandanas covering their faces and guns in their hands. They ran to the bank as the gang was coming out. They pulled their guns, announced themselves, and that's when the gunfight broke out. It was five against two. The three of us were on patrol outside the city at this time and the Sheriffs took too long to grab their rifles and get there. According to witnesses, the gang had some kind of magical shield up that stopped the bullets fired at them. They returned fire but when they saw the bullets bounce off the vests and coats Hank and Dwight were wearing they started throwing spells around. The street around the bank looks like a war zone. Buildings were on fire, big holes were blown out of the streets, and Hank and Dwight were blown up. Literally. They used some kind of bomb spells on them. When they were dead they hopped on brooms and flew away." The head Marshal said looking green.

"Trained combat magic and battle tactics." Harry said looking at Neville.

"Sounds like it. Aurors?" Neville asked.

"No, they don't have those here remember. Maybe they came through a rift?" Harry said.

"Either way let's get a move on. I want these guys dead before noon." Neville said coldly.

"Just so you boys know. These are not easily killed men. We put their descriptions into the wire service and we got multiple hits back for this gang. There is a reward on their heads by the bank for a number of bank robberies and they might be responsible for a missing airship carrying a group of fur traders. Be Careful out there." Jack said

They hopped on brooms and headed to the crime scene. Harry took a reading of the magical signatures and tracked them using magic to a small cabin sitting on an outcropping in the mountains near by. The cabin looked out of place on the spot it was sitting. Something Billy pointed out when they got closer.

"That's because that cabin is portable. It was brought to this spot and set up. Like the cube or a magical tent. It's got three quarts cover from the cliff and the overhang. A narrow sightline, and it's also warded. I can feel the wards from this far out." Harry said bringing the group down and off to the side to stay out of the line of sight.

"How are we going to do this?" Neville asked.

"Paired portkey rock right into the cabin. Those wards feel like anti portkey and your standard protection wards. If one of us was to shadow walk through the wards and into the cabin. He could drop a portkey stone inside the cabin. Then Neville and I could pop right into a room in the cabin. With our silent guns or blades we could take all of them out then it's just a matter of cleaning up. Billy I need you to stand by the side of the outcropping with your cards in hand and take care of anyone that tries to run. These guys have wands and they know battle magic. So hit them with a barrage of cards." Harry said patting Billy on the shoulder.

They landed on the top of the mountain. Harry found two rock, one fist sized rock and one small pebble. He made them into a set of paired portkeys and handed Valos the small pebble. Valos vanished into the shadows of a nearby boulder. He drifted along the rock and over the ledge. He crossed the ward line with ease and ghosted around the cabin looking into the windows. He saw six rooms through the windows. There was a bigger living room with a big fireplace, two big couches, three chairs, coffee tables, and a nice big card table. In that same big room was also a kitchen with a sink, table, icebox, and stove. There were four bedrooms, a bathroom and a storage room for cut firewood and dry food storage. Valos counted all five men in the big main living room. Three men were sitting by the fire at the card table playing cards and drinking. One man was sitting at the kitchen table counting the cash and coin they stole from the bank. The last man was cooking in the kitchen. Valos slipped through a window into the bedroom at the back of the cabin. He set the pebble down in the middle of the open floor and pulled out the small square sheet of glass Harry gave him and called Harry.

"Portkey is in place." He said.

"Copy." Harry said and a second later Harry and Neville were standing in the room.

"We got a problem. They're all in the same room. It's going to be hard to get the drop on them even if we have surprise on our side." Valos said.

"Easy enough." Harry said pulling out his glass phone. "Billy, I need you to hit the front of the wards with a small barrage of cards. Nothing that will do too much damage but enough to put on a good light show." Harry said.

"Sounds easy enough." Billy said with a smirk.

"Count off a minute and then go for it. We'll get into place." Harry said.

Harry and Neville pulled on their cloaks and Valos vanished into the shadows again. Harry ghosted out of the room and checked to make sure the coast was clear before waving them out. They slipped down the hallway and into the main room. Using shoulder taps Harry slipped over to the man counting the money. While Valos and Neville ghosted over to the card table.

A few tense seconds passed before a bright blue and red explosion rocked the cabin out the front windows. All the men stood up and that was the signal to make their move. Valos stabbed two of the men playing cards at the table in the back with his poison daggers. The 10 inch long blades entered both men's backs through the top of the left kidney and ended in the bottom of their hearts. Causing both men tense up. When the king snake venom shot out of the tips of the blades into their hearts both men died a second later. Neville being less surgical struck the third man at the table with his big knife taking his head clean off showering the table with blood. Harry shot the cook in the head with his X-five and stabbed his five inch knife into the base of the man counting the money's neck. One second there were eight living men in the room the next second there were only three.

It took a few minutes to deactivate the wards, clean up the dead bodies, and put all the bank's money back into the bags. They also looted the house and found stashes of cash and coin in each bedroom as well as a few Wells Fargo strong boxes in the storage room full of cash and coin. Also in the storage room was 20 shrunken crates full of furs, hides, and leathers. They also found crates of guns, axes, knives, steel traps, and camping equipment. It was easy to see they attacked the airship carrying the fur traders. Harry wondered what they did with the ship when Billy found a foot long model airship that looked like a smaller version of the St. Mary on a shelf. Except it was made of a grey wood. The side sails were made of steel and a grey cloth, and the hull was painted black.

"Would you look at this. Nice model." Billy said.

"That's no toy, that's the airship they captured. They killed the crew and took the ship and cargo." Harry said taking the small ship and reading the back. "Goddess of the Grey Hunt"

"Can we keep it?" Billy asked.

"We have to see if it belongs to someone first. The same thing with the cargo. But we get to keep all the money they took apart from the what they took today and we'll keep this cabin. We can take it with us on a hunting trip or we can set it up somewhere and use it. The same with the traps we can set those out in the local forest and collect the game for the town. It's been a week and a half since we've been on a hunt." Harry said.

They shrank the cabin and headed back to town. They dropped off the bank's money. They showed the dead bodies to the marshals before Harry turned them into stones. They asked about the ship and the company it worked for and it turned out to be owned by one of the dead crewmen. It mant the ship was technically salvage. The head marshal tried to hand Harry a small sack of coins.

"What's this?" Harry asked.

"It's from the bank and the Mayor. It's reward money for taking care of the men that killed our brothers." He said.

"How much is in here?" Harry asked looking in the bag at the gold coins $50.

"$10,000. The bank pitched in $8,000 and the mayor pitched in $2,000." He said and Harry could see Billy's eyes get wide.

"Did Hank and Dwight have families?" Harry asked.

"Hank had a wife and two kids. Dwight had a wife and a son." Jack said.

"Then take this back and split it between the two families. Also I'm adding this to it." Harry said taking a sack of gold coins out of his bag and counted out 200 more gold coins and added them to the bag. "If they ever need anything you get in contact with me." Harry said handing the sack back.

"Thank you." Jack said with a heartfelt honesty looking misty eyed.

"Like I said, the Marshal's service is a brotherhood. We take care of our family." Harry said patting the man on the shoulder. He nodded to the other two men in the office before leading his group out.

"Boys, I know I just handed back $10,000 reward. I will pay you each $2,500 when we get back to the office. For now we have two more missions to finish today. Neville you and Valos are off to Rock springs to take out these stone giants. Remember, save the bodies. Billy you're with me. We'll take out this pack of wolves in Twin Falls. We'll meet back in the office when we're done." Harry said holding out a portkey to Billy.

The portkey dropped them off in the Twin Falls Marshal's office. It was a quick broom ride into the local forest. A few tracking spells later and they found the pack of 14 wolves. From their brooms using their Model 1's. The pack was dropped in a matter of minutes. Harry turned them all into coins and summoned them. They headed back to Twin Falls and reported in. They were handed $1,000 in gold coins and Harry handed the bag to Billy. They portkeyed back to the office after that.

Neville and Valos headed to Rock Springs. They took brooms to the mountain pass and found the giants easy enough. There were four of them. They were 20 foot tall, and 8 foot wide. It looked like a family. Neville pulled out his Winchester high wall rifle and shot the biggest giant in the head. He looked confused for a second before he hit the ground like a sack of hammers. This caused the other three giants to look at them and start throwing rocks at them. Neville held up his wand and created a shield while Valos took out the other three giants with three head shots. They turned the giants into big coins before they headed back to the Marshal's office. They were handed a $1,000 reward which Neville handed to Valos and they portkeyed back to their office. They saw Harry and Billy in the office. They handed Harry the four big plate sized coins. He made a tarp on the ground and in the middle of the open office space and dropped the charm on coin. It turned into a huge giant. Harry cast the goblin spell and turned the giant into 18 gemstones.

"Fuck. You get a lot of stones out of each giant. Mia said they're worth $100 each." Harry muttered to Neville who was standing by him.

"No shit?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, we're going to pay Beth with the profits. She's going to take over as the new doctor to free up Mia." Harry said repeating the process three more times. He ended up with 69 stones he added them to the 5 he made earlier. "We can also use them as disposable income to pay for things like Marshal's bereavement pay. The bodies of our enemies will pay for the health care and death benefits of the Marshal brotherhood." Harry said looking at the blue-grey stones in the bag as he walked into his office and took a seat at his desk.

"Sounds good to me. And Harry, I got the pay for the boys. It will cover half of what you put in." Neville said sitting in front of the desk.

"Okay. what are we going to do with the airship? Are we keeping it? Are we using it for something? Can we use it for anything?" Harry asked lighting a small cigar.

"I'm not sure. We have the fighters after all, and they're faster than any Airship out there. Maybe we can use it for transport or something." Neville said pouring them both a small glass of scotch.

"Maybe. What time is it? It feels late." Harry asked.

"It's half past two. You feel drained because we skipped lunch." Neville said.

"Right. Well lets round up the boys and head to the boarding house for some lunch. Then after that let's hope we get to relax." Harry said with a smile that died on his face as Teddy came running in with a piece of paper.

"When it rains it pours." Neville said downing his drink and standing up to intercept Teddy.

"Like a fucking monsoon." Harry said downing his drink and standing up with a huff.


End file.
